


Again, I Bloom for You

by 1117



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Ambushes and Sneak Attacks, Blood and Gore, Cameos, Competition, Fights, Fluff and Crack, Hongjoong is panic gay, M/M, Major Character Injury, Nobody is Dead, Seonghwa is confident gay, Spells & Enchantments, Stalking, Strangers to Lovers, Supernatural Elements, They are all wizards, Witch Curses, Witches, Wizards, at least not the kids :'), cursing, i blame it over schools and quarantine xd, its my imagination :), kinda dressing up like illusion/wave era except they have weapons and they might bite, lots and lots of cursing, no this is not hogwarts, not really cuz its literally all fluff, slow burn????, yungi is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:35:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 41,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25461778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1117/pseuds/1117
Summary: An arranged marriage stood right at their door: Pressure, expectation, and hope given beyond their young, inexperienced shoulders.None of them asked for it, but just like everything else, life flows.So if they have to bring pride back to their nation, they must deal with this together.Not that either Seonghwa or Hongjoong had any choice over this stupid rule just to attend the one-year-long Wizardious International Tournament that happened once every three years.Like seriously, though. Who thefuckmade that rule?
Relationships: Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 22
Kudos: 119





	1. Conqueror

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hello, what am I doing to myself again?
> 
> Have been stunned with ideas for days now that I have to write this down. Hopefully, my brain will be useful enough to finish this au.
> 
> yo, but I'm so bad with slow-burn how the hell am I supposed to make this slow-burn omg ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-
> 
> This chapter doesn't have any bloody description except for the very last part, but either way, read with caution!!!
> 
> I am no beta-read, so if something seems weird to you, blame that on Yeosang, he told me to write this.
> 
> Plus I'm kind of sleep-deprived....so yikes.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it! :')

"Show me your ID, sir." The guard stood by the fences stared fiercely at Seonghwa as he pulled out his valise from the taxi trunk.

"Does it matter?" he glared back, "you will have to see me every day, anyhow." before abruptly, he pulled the big black valise, hard plastic wheels growling under the rocky path to his new home.

The strange gaze burnt through the front to the back of his leather jacket gave out an uncomfortable sensation. But Seonghwa bit his tongue and ignored it. He had other things to deal with, not beefing with some dumb guard who currently questioned his identification. The guard raised his left arm to stop the latter before he reached toward the high metal gates.

Seonghwa gave none of that, snapping his head toward the corner of the security camera hanging by the right side of the apartment wall, signed a little signal on his thumb and pinky. He tapped them three times before the harsh screeching sounds of the opening gates caught the guard's attention. 

The man apologized and stepped back, leading ways for Seonghwa.

Home.

Maybe it wasn't the right term to explain the unfamiliar place, but he was getting used to it. Or at least he tried.

* * *

Everyone should understand this. It could be otherwise if they live under a rock or the bottom of the sea. Not that Seonghwa cared, but it should be a common-sense by now. Especially in this generation. At least in this economy.

There were five sections of power in this nation. In other words, five ancestries were the most potent branches throughout Korea: Park, Kim, Lee, Choi, and Jung.

Especially Parks. Nobody, with heavy implication, that nobody should fuck with the Parks.

Not that anyone dared to.

And nobody supposed to. 

But apparently, one did. 

* * *

There are perks of being the son of one of the most successful and influential families. And Seonghwa took every advantage of it. 

He was bright, intelligent, and skillful. And many people acknowledged him for his achievements, things that he could be bragging all day without feeling a single skin cell of his thickening. 

He liked receiving praises, and he loved it when people gave him what he wanted. He wouldn't ask for anything more because he had everything. Everyone he knows, or may not knows, all acknowledge that.

In the world where magic determined your social statue, Seonghwa extraordinarily inherited the extreme talent in performing his ability. And although he could be cocky enough to show the world how proud he was with his power, Seonghwa was known to be a modest and humble person. He spoke gently and always gave out the kindest manner regardless of any circumstances. 

Being born as the youngest in the most dominant family instantly gave him the gold spoon of reverence and worship by all servants in his place. But he understood soon enough to know not to show any of his cockiness, refrained himself from being impolite towards everyone, higher status or not.

Because of his gentle facade, sometimes, people assumed Seonghwa as insincere and doubtful. Not that anyone would say such things in front of his face, but he was smart enough to know, even if he never mentioned it. Seonghwa didn't care if people assumed that he walked out in guise and murdered people as a hobby or drowning secrets inside the third basement to the bottom of one of the Parks' mansions. By the end of the day, he knew himself more than those misleading rumors.

And because of his tender and careless mind, three weeks ago, Seonghwa would laugh if San ever tells him someone mocked a title such offended and vulgar as a "rotten egg." He would shrug and continued on one of his potions against his lab room's rackets, being oblivious to the world. Barely a few days ago, that statement had _changed_. And call him petty for being wounded, but he had his reason.

Not when Kim Hongjoong, the second most powerful house, _(yes, read that clearly, second)_ , called him in such name.

They never talked. Seonghwa and Kim never once associated. He never associates with anyone from all of the houses in a close relationship but the Chois. 

First of all, Jongho was lovable. An adorable sophomore. Despite all those times, he might behave like a sixty-five soccer coach who was still paying for his house mortgage in Seonghwa's eyes; sometimes, the younger guy would come up and joked in that disgustingly adorable voice, pouting his lips with that cheeky tone, _"Rwight? hyung, rwight? Yu lob mi chwoo, rwight?"_ and wrapped his ten times stronger arms around Seonghwa's bony one.

And then there was San. The quiet junior year cousin of Jongho, always so silent and reserved at first but loud and hilarious once they got close. Very sudden and unpredictable, if not, a combination of panic and confidence in a way. Always gave him the most stunned-out stares and random life lectures in the midst of nowhere before he sulked, asking if Seonghwa can treat him dinner under his puppy eyes. Damn it, Seonghwa can't ever disagree with those stares. 

They might be annoying, but they are keepers, and he always reminded himself that.

Sure, Seonghwa had many friends. As some sort of associating partners, he might have talked to every house's member of different branches he ever greeted in clan gatherings and meetings, considering him an important character in his family. But he never mocked nor offended anyone. Yet some guy, what was he, the middle child? -in the Kim, came in front of his face one day and called him a rotten egg. Right in the middle of their campus cafeteria, in front of the whole building. 

And mind you that he felt insulted, but him, the Park Seonghwa, just got yelled at by _Kim Hongjoong_.

He noted San almost dropped his sausage before it even got into his mouth by the corner of his eyes. And Jongho's eyes widened as big as the ping-pong ball in their big, fancy university gym storehouse. 

Seonghwa? He didn't know how he looked like at the moment, but undoubtedly not a pleasant appearance.

Out of nowhere, a blue hair gray uniform ball in the form of a chick. That was the most he could insult, _forgive him_ , slammed on his table, and gave the dirtiest look he ever received before growling those words and stumbled away. He seemed distressed and bitter, with his messy hair and miss-tied cravat. Someone shuffled along with him, Seonghwa noticed Jung Wooyoung, the oldest Jung son, who hysterically laughed through the hallway as he chased the shorter figure before they both vanished from his sight.

He couldn't even proceed what was happening until the sentence of "Fuck you, Park Seonghwa, you fucking rotten smashed piece of an egg!" followed through his brain all-day. Not even until the moment that he hit his bed.

No, it wasn't the _'fuck you'_ part that offended him, but the _'rotten egg.'_ And he failed at dragging it out of his head. Mind him, but it sounded as hurtful as how a rotten egg would taste like, not that he ever tasted one.

In all of his thirty-two years of life, being insulted at was a first. 

_What the hell did he do?_

The day after, Sunday, he received a call from his father, telling him to meet up for a talk. And Seonghwa felt anything but comfort in the man's voice, almost as silence before a storm. Dressed up in his turtle neck and fixed his newly dyed dirty blonde hair, he walked out of his room, feeling the tension on his shoulders and knocking on his father's office on the other side of the long and endless hallway.

"Come in," a deep voice echo through the monotone room, and Seonghwa pushed the big heavy door, giving out the small creek throughout the corridor.

"Good morning, father," Seonghwa greeted as he stepped inside.

The Parks family all originally came from Jinju, with their heavy Satoori dialect wavering in the air, which was one of the intimidating things about them. Jongho almost mistook Seonghwa as a son of a Mafia gang the first time they've met, and he heeded that not everyone spoke the same way as him and his family. But ever since they moved to Seoul for business, he learned the Seoul accent. Along with San. That boy was sexy with his Satoori whenever he was in the mood.

Now, speaking to his parents in their family voice was somewhat amusing, not that he complained about the constant switching of tone for his kinships.

Looking at his youngest son with his golden reading glasses, the older man lowered the paperwork into his desk. Seonghwa automatically sat by the black sofa by the latter's office's right side before the man dropped by the other side of the furniture. Seonghwa fiddled his shirt nervously.

"You see, I think the boy must have told you yesterday, but I want to discuss this with you again just to make things clear." Progressed through his father's words, Seonghwa paused, making sure that he did not mishear anything.

 _Boy? Yesterday? Tell him what?_ He thought he was missing something over here.

Not hearing his frustration screaming from the interior of his morning newly proceeding brain, his father continued. "We will have to be prepared as soon as possible, and I know you might feel rushed with all this information," his tone thick, "and I'm sorry for putting this responsibility on your shoulders, son. But the wedding date has been decided. Your mother and Mrs. Kim went to the fortune teller three days ago and they-"

Seonghwa cut him midway "-wait, father. Stop, stop."

Seonghwa's father looked at him, confusedly, "is there something wrong, son?"

Hold on.

_Hold the fuck on._

Wedding?

Mrs. Kim?

And as soon as _WHAT_?

Seonghwa stared at his father in horrid, what the fuck did he just hear? What the actual fuck was happening? If looks can kill, he could be one-shotting his father's confusing gaze, and Seonghwa's eyes could pop out of his sockets in an instant.

His father looked at his surprised expression and turned out even more confused than him.

"Did he..., did he not tell you anything?" Mr. Park studied his face with a pinch of furrowed eyebrows. 

"Who? Tell me what?" Seonghwa felt like a frog in a drained pond, clueless and deferred.

_What had been going on this whole week that he had no clue about?_

"Son, we are talking about Kim Hongjoong. We have an indenture with the Kims. There will be an international tournament between all nations of wizards, and our families will be the representative of Korea." 

"What?" Seonghwa knew about this, he knew about the competition. He literally got trained just for this day.

But with who? 

Do what? 

And WHY?

"Father, I thought it was an individual competition? _YOU_ told me it was an individual competition!"

Mr. Park gave a deep sigh, "Did Hongjoong not telling you anything? I assumed that he had already been informed."

"NO?!" Seonghwa, as collected as he usually was, feeling frightened and stressed out.

His father gave out another look, holding on with Seonghwa's jumpy and freaked out expression before he gave in, appearing even more distressed than his son. 

"Seonghwa, the condition to join the tournament is, you must be partnered with someone, and in this case, your lawful spouse. I understand that it is sudden, but the administration of the Wizards Head Quarter applied this requirement barely last month. I have only been notified not even two weeks ago."

Seonghwa felt as if 2020 couldn't have been worse than this information.

"We have an arrangement between the Kims, which I'm sure you know has the same hierarchy as ours. Mr. Kim requested for this arrangement with one of his sons, Kim Hongjoong, and you, to join this tournament together."

Seonghwa didn't even have to use half of his brain to understand what his father was about to say.

"You, son, as our representative, will have a marriage with Kim Hongjoong, we have to make it quick since we only have three months left before the first match of the contest begins. And our families had agreed upon this. We just want you kids to get to know each other. And if possible," he hinted, "try to sort things out together."

Seonghwa couldn't utter a word.

"And Seonghwa, you must know how much this competition matters to us. Not just for our clan, but also our whole nation. The responsibility is huge, but I put my trust in you. The wedding will be next week, exactly seven days. Be prepared and talk to him. Mr. Kim and I have chosen a place for you two to live together and prepare for the fight."

* * *

Seonghwa stared at the ceiling of his bedroom, still trying to swallow those pills of notices that he progressed earlier from his father.

He can't even take them all in, as much as he needed.

It was the most stressful Sunday in his life. And truth to be told, Seonghwa would do the same to Kim Hongjoong if he was receiving such a frightening message in one day, have no time to understand but worried over the upcoming schedule that they both would have to endure.

Maybe Seonghwa could forgive the other guy for yelling at him this one time.

_Holy fuck._

What was he going to do now?

Looking blankly at Kim Hongjoong's phone number that he genuinely just gave not too long ago. He felt truly conflicted. As if he was stepping on a pile of quicksand. But make it worse, in the middle of a Sahara desert. With no tree to hold on but stupid spiky demonic succulents.

Seonghwa stared dumbly at the black screen, reflecting his face in that under chin angle and lightly tabbed it a few times until he gave up. What sort of sin had he committed to bearing this type of punishment? 

He felt ridiculous. 

It was too sudden, too foreign, and worst of all. 

He did not know who Hongjoong was. 

They never talked to one another; to begin with, Kim Hongjoong was just another same-age powerful face in the wizarding world, in this social ranking, in this nation's hectic social class.

Of course, Seonghwa knew who he was; he was a Kim for fuck's sake. But clearly, they have never been in each other's connection before, and out of a sudden, their parents expected them to be mated, be by each other side for the upcoming series of matches and competitions.

And most important of all, to put trust in one another.

It was much easier said than done.

Seonghwa was not merely hard to get closed at, but he wasn't sociable. He was patient and tender. He was attentive and understanding. But many found it was hard to believe the son of the Parks would behaving in such well-being purely from the truth of his heart.

And he doubted himself that he even looked one bit of tender right now. Seonghwa was terrifying.

Being realistic, Seonghwa would think quickly. He knew he was not someone to be easily warm up first. And it might take effort for him to feel comfortable when someone steps in his bubble.

And with that fiery reaction after hearing the news from one blue furry newborn rumpled in the shape of a pouty chick, would he enjoy Hongjoong's persona as his companion? _For life?_

Heavy words intended, he admitted.

But hell to the fucking _no_.

* * *

"Fuck off, Mingi." Hongjoong groaned for the umpteenth time at his friend's attempt to humiliate him in the center of the mall.

"Come on, dude," Mingi chuckled, "you just got the jackpot. Never expected that you and him, and I'm saying this as quote-to-quote, the 'perfect Park Seonghwa' to be partnered-"

"I said, fuck off." Hongjoong was about to lose the last bit of his patience.

"-it should be an honor, don't you think? And he is a good guy, too. I've talked with him a few times, and he seems fine. Not many people acted like him," Mingi smiled in a goofy way, showing out all full of his teeth, but all Hongjoong wanted to do was punch into his face. Bulleye.

"Damn it, Mingi. Will you just shut up for a second? Would you like your parents to just suddenly announced you would be having a marriage with Choi San? "

Mingi grimaced, "Ew, no, thank you very much. I love my Yunho."

"That's what I thought." Hongjoong rolled his eyes. "Now, leave me alone."

Mingi shrugged, "Whatever you say, dude." Before walked away to the nearby claw machine that stood by the public restroom. "I mean, it's not a total loss, you know. You could be ended up with that freshman guy that constantly confessed to you ever since he saw you last month at the Badminton Spring Semester Match? Didn't he even stalk you back home after?" He recalled with a chuckle.

Hongjoong was tired of this conversation, and as much as Mingi planned to build this talk with him all night as their hangout time, the blue hair wizard had enough. "Mingi, if you keep talking, I will pour profluvium potioninto your current take-out fried chicken package."

Mingi shut his mouth immediately.

Hongjoong had a reason to yell at Park Seonghwa yesterday. Maybe the guy didn't do anything wrong. _Hell_ , he probably didn't even know what happened. But the fact that Hongjoong's mother told him everything through the phone, with Wooyoung's eyes opened in the biggest volume he had ever done, sitting next to him, and Hongjoong stuttered through his call. He decided he deserved a screaming before his head exploded. His mother nagged at him to talk to Seonghwa, and screw that, but Hongjoong didn't plan a single thing with some guy in the same school for a wedding.

With anger getting through ahead of him, he marched furiously toward the cafeteria and growled to his heart's content. Right in front of Seonghwa, right in front of everybody, exposing to the public as much as possible. Because he was stressing out, and as he said earlier. He deserved to cry about it.

Hongjoong was huffing as he escaped the scenario, leaving everyone amazed at the situation. Wooyoung's high laugh echoed through the hall as he found everything ridiculously hilarious.

Such good friends that he had there.

All of his life, Hongjoong had never prepared to fight. Sure, he was top-class, and he had confidence. But this competition wasn't any test they took in school. It was a battlefield. Hongjoong felt opposed, but beside him, who else would suit up with the Parks.

He was a _Kim_ for fuck's sake.

And as much as he would like to come back and tell Park Seonghwa exactly what his mother told him. He felt frustrated. Mayhaps he altered his decision half-way; their wedding wouldn't happen anytime soon but seven days. At least let him had a break for the last time before he would be stuck with an overwhelmingly attractive schoolmate whom he knew nothing of, who soon-to-be _his_ husband. He assumed Mr. Park and Mrs. Park would talk to Park Seonghwa either way. Their little "get-to-know" session could be rain checked, stated Hongjoong. 

* * *

As if faith was playing with them, Hongjoong's rain checked session came quicker than he expected.

As they were passing by the Starbucks store inside the mall, Wooyoung walked out from the public restroom while Hongjoong and Mingi waited for him in the meantime. They gave a few more steps in silence, and a ravenette head was noticed through the line of _Wandy-n-Wishes,_ the mall infamous potion store. Next to him was the dirty blonde head, slightly taller than him, who fondly smiled at the animatedly talking ravenette Choi San. And Hongjoong felt the need to find a hole and hide away from all the exposed area surrounded him, their eyes instantly met. 

Of fucking course, it was Park Seonghwa.

Mingi seemed to be confused by a second before he followed Hongjoong's staring and peeped a grin. Hongjoong had the nerve to kick his ass. Mingi waved at the other two.

"Aha! Look what we have here."

"Mingi, shut up." Hongjoong gritted his teeth. He wanted to turn away, walk out of this hell, and maybe run home and yell at his minion plushies that were stocking on top of his bookshelf. But apparently, Park fucking Seonghwa never learned to read a sign. And he cut the line, leaving a puzzled San behind and walking straight to where Hongjoong stood.

Hongjoong didn't even have the chance to compose himself before he was pulled away from his friends by Park Seonghwa. Along with the "we need to talk" narrative.

Hongjoong's lost face seemed to throw Seonghwa off, but he still dragged the shorter guy through the nearby empty section of the gigantic mall.

Trying his best to catch up to Seonghwa, Hongjoong harshly shook his wrist out of Seonghwa's hold, feeling suffocated. After they reached out of people's eardropping-zone, Seonghwa intensely stared at Hongjoong, making him felt somewhat guilty. 

Of course, Hongjoong knew he was rude for yelling at him out of the blue. But hello? An arranged marriage? With a stranger? He bet neither of them even feel a tint of pleasures under this unforeseen bullshitting plot of a competition "requirement." So even if he felt sorry, he appeared not to be as such.

"What?" staring up at Seonghwa, he spoke harsher than intended.

His tone might have wounded Seonghwa a little, the latter's eyes squinted disturbingly, but Hongjoong didn't point out. And Seonghwa didn't say anything about it.

"Are you," he sighed, "are you trying to run away?" Seonghwa said, confused Hongjoong.

"What?"

"You wanted to run away earlier," Seonghwa steered, 

"Well, I-"

"Listen." Seonghwa's demand stopped Hongjoong from uttered another word, before he continued, "I know this is ridiculous, and stressful for both of us. But I'm trying my best right now, and I assume you do know how significant this WIT- this Wizardious International Tournament is, right?"

"Of course I do. It's the biggest and most important competition, and only the greatest, most potential sorcerers allowed to attend." Hongjoong rolled his eyes, "also, don't spell it out like I'm some dumbass, I know."

"That was not my inten-" Seonghwa sputtered, "Anyways, you're right. That's why I expect you to cooperate with me. _Bloody hell_ , it's a whole year competition since we have to compete with every nation on the list. If you're running away from me, how are we supposed to pair up and fight against other powerful sorcerers?"

"You think I wouldn't want to do the same? But don't you see how awkward everything is? I can't even cooperate with myself right now with all this news hitting up on my face just through one goddamn phone call from my mom." Hongjoong growled, losing his temper.

Seonghwa was taken back with Hongjoong's anger. But after a moment of stillness, he tried to soothe Hongjoong down. Maybe also soothe himself down.

He agreed it was devastating, possibly beyond helpless. But the last thing he expected from them was to fight. And nobody wanted that.

Not when they have seven days left before the wedding. 

Seonghwa wanted to puke so bad.

Maybe get himself a tower, and mayhaps he would volunteer to jump down despite his fear of height. Best if it was on top of Mount Everest.

Someone between the two of them had to be the bigger person. And as much as he hated that everything revolved in such a chaotic fast-paced, none of them had a choice. Not when they came from the most potent family lines of sorcerers and being sons of the most influential leaders' clans.

Damn it. Seonghwa hated his title sometimes.

"Fuck, okay, listen, Hongjoong. Let's make a deal." The shorter man looked up at him, attended. "We can start slowly, and I understand that it might take some moment for us to get used to each other, but we don't have much time. And supposably, if we are conflicted, we can try to appeal this to our parents. But at this minute, do our best because only three more months, and we will have to enter the ring. And maybe, after all, this ends, we can separate or whatever the ordeal you want."

"Ugh!" Hongjoong grunted, closed his eyes to think for a moment before he whispered a small, "fine, deal," sealing his case. Suppose that he demanded a simple-minded idea. Hongjoong would risk it all to reach it, as long as it was beneficial. 

And they shook hands after, with lumps of rocks that called pride and duty hauled them down altogether.

* * *

The news traveled quickly, primarily when both came from influential families, and soon after, everyone at college started talking about them as much as their uncomforted and awkwardness vivid, Hongjoong got no choice but to sit by Seonghwa during their free time. But so were the other six friends of them. It was more of a quick introduction since everybody knows everybody, just never interact. And Kang Yeosang, Wooyoung's best friend, sat in between Jongho and Seonghwa at their table while San cheerfully talked to Yunho about a cat that he saw at the park and his intention to make her his new familiar. Jongho tried to sneak a few apple slides from Seonghwa's fruit box while the older guy couldn't shake Hongjoong and their missions out of his train of thought.

Hongjoong was behaving weirdly ever since their deal from last night. And Seonghwa wanted to ask him what was wrong, but he refrained himself. He probably looked stressed out himself, too.

In the end, he didn't ask.

* * *

It was Thursday, they both got excused from the school for some time to move-in to their little apartment. The school assured both families of their time preparing and equipped for the competition. 

Somehow the traffic-jam delayed his time to the place for over an hour, and Seonghwa's mood went sour. Sitting impatiently in the back of the taxi, Seonghwa sent Hongjoong a quick text, informing him of his current state. 

He received a simple "k" the minute following, and damn, he hated it when people text him in that way, it felt ignorant for some reason. But it was Hongjoong he dealing with, so he overlooked it.

Walking out of the taxi with a bitter spirit, he felt annoyed by the security guard stood by the apartment gate. Signaled the inside of the building to open the gate. Seonghwa took a deep breath as he walked inside, ready for any challenge confronting him.

It was a new experience.

* * *

Hongjoong arrived early, maybe much sooner than he expected, but he was there, stood inside the big, comfy apartment before he settled all of his stuff down. Seonghwa must be unlucky traveling from the other side of the town since he had no traffic jams on the way. 

Hongjoong decided to put his clothes and little necessities around, cleaning a bit in the living room while waiting for Seonghwa's arrival to discuss their schedule and how they should practice for the tournament. 

It was a two-tone apartment, cream, and wooden colors, with one master bedroom and bathroom, one kitchen, and a small soft decorated living room with a bar stool connected to the side of the kitchen counters. 

Hongjoong had always wished to be living in a house of his own. He didn't have any problem with his family. But he preferred having his nail polishes and white canvases stay intact without a single paint drop or jumbles of messy drawings caused by his younger cousins who came by and visited once every month. Or having all of his paintbrushes got put in places he couldn't find: annoying cousins and their mischievous asses, because who else would walk in his room?

They always screamed, shrieked, and yelling at one another while rough-housing on the big sofa. And as much as Hongjoong had threatened them not to come by his room without permission, they never listened. What a bunch of brats.

Hongjoong shook his head out of the thought and proceeded to organized the bedroom that, ineptly, shared with Seonghwa. It would be so awkward, he remarked, as he pulled out his collection of minions and other received plushies, decorating them nicely on the wooden desk inside the room. He hung all of his clothes to one side of the closet and shuffled all of his textbooks, comics, and potion recipe notes that he had taken into the wooden bookshelf's right hand. 

There was one particular thing about each family; they all use different weapons, or in ordinary cases, magical items that help to support every wizard's daily life. The most basic and standard thing to perform on would simply be the hands. But to be born in a mighty family as Hongjoong's, his comrade was the golden sixty-inch-long staff with a red ruby on the top, which he had been carried ever since he was fifteen. A powerful symbol in the Kims family, as every Kim proudly says. Carefully laid his staff into the corner of the wall, Hongjoong craned his neck, stretching a few times to loosen up his stiffed bones.

By the time he checked the clock that newly hung up a moment ago, he had realized two hours had passed.

Damn, Seonghwa was _very_ late.

But rather than wasting time longing for the latter, Hongjoong decided to take a shower. He was tired of all of these cleaning and refurbishing. And it was getting darker by each minute, humming as he stripped himself into the big, warmly decorated white bathtub, Hongjoong turned on the water in delight.

He had so much to think about, how abruptly everything seemed to be, but Seonghwa was bearing through it. And so far, it wasn't as bad as Hongjoong predicted. He could deal with this, considering if he got the chance to divorce after all of this madness ended. His life wasn't compressed, and maybe it was partly why he finally agreed to follow his parents' foolish arranged marriage like a blinded moth beneath the neon street lights.

* * *

The moment Seonghwa stepped inside the apartment, he didn't expect to see a wet-looking Hongjoong with flat, sticky blue hair, and a big tee covered all of his body but his skinny legs. A breath stuck in his throat, and Seonghwa just stood by the door dumbfoundedly. Hongjoong walked towards the couch in the room and picked up the phone he left there as he gently ruffled his hair on the small towel.

"What? Why are you standing there? Come in." Seonghwa shook himself out of the staring. He felt like a creep. Giving Hongjoong one look of apologetic for his delay in arrival, he tried his best not to embarrass himself before hurriedly walked inside their share bedroom. Hongjoong played with his phone throughout the time Seonghwa settled everything down and went to take a shower. His friends texted him, asking about their settlement, how they like the new place, how many rooms the apartment has, or how big was each room. 

Hongjoong talked briefly and assured each of them until Seonghwa walked out of the bathroom, his dirty blonde hair seemed even darker under the light, and the black tee that he had on was wide-collar, revealing a broad collarbone damped in freshly showered water. Hongjoong stunned, with his mouth agape like a fish, phone tightened in his hand. But he led his eyes away quickly, staring at the yellow coffee table in between them instead. Cheeks suddenly burnt for a quick second. He hoped Seonghwa didn't catch that.

Awkwardly cleared his voice, Hongjoong scooched aside for Seonghwa to sit down, and Seonghwa had the damn ball to lick his goddamn glossy lips as he pulled his hair back, holy shit.

Hongjoong supposed to stay focus. Hongjoong, focus.

Seonghwa sat down, draped his towel around his neck, and looked back Hongjoong, expecting him to start the conversation first.

The blue hair man caught his gaze and cleared his throat, "alright, starting from tomorrow until January for the tournament to begin, this would be our practice time. I'm not hard to follow, so as long as I know what your capabilities are, we will be in-sync in no time." he assured.

Seonghwa nodded in understanding, "great, what are you confident within your term of skill? I have good damage control and great ability power, plus my use in potions, so once we duet with others, just leave the poisoning and damaging close-range part to me, I can attack in near distance as I'm concerned. If I'm not wrong, you're outstanding in movement speed and explosive spells, correct? What the furthest your range could be?"

Hongjoong looked up in the ceiling, calculating in his head before concluding, eyesight lined with Seonghwa's for a split second, "I think, roughly fifteen feet if we are dueting face-to-face. For spells that require more far-ranging, I might have to stand much further away to prevent making the whole arena from an internal explosion. The closer I shoot my magic, the more energy those spells pent up in my staff, so it would be dangerous using far-range spells in the face-to-face distance, if that makes sense."

Seonghwa stared at him like he just witnessed some sort of aliens invading the Earth. There was a reason for Hongjoong to be the chosen one, to be partnered with him for this critical battle. In comparison, Seonghwa had the skill and excessive knowledge about magic and shielding energy in him. Hongjoong had the speed and the actual damaging spells that could harm people in an instant. Great, Seonghwa thought. They can complete each other.

So they formed a passage based on which rivals they would encounter and drew out the position of their standings depending on each type of attack. Seonghwa's weapon is a beautiful daffodil flower decorated traditional fan, which was dominant in giving near sharp poison in each fold of the fan, and high, trustable shield when needed. Especially with Seonghwa's ability to harden the fan into various hardcore metals. His new learning of changing the material's matter spells gave him a boost of self-confidence. 

Hongjoong would take his part as a sniper, and stood from far away for range attacking with his staff while Seonghwa steps up to be the frontline. And in a risky situation, if either of them got hurt, they would stand back in Hongjoong's position, either Seonghwa healed Hongjoong while the latter pent up his power for defense. Or Seonghwa would stay as a shield only for Hongjoong to boost his health as he spread a layer of poison surround them so the enemies could not come near.

It was a great plan, or Hongjoong thought so, except that wasn't the problem at hand. It got late, and his stomach started to rumble, but they didn't have any food at home at the moment. Seonghwa looked around like a lost puppy stood up and checked through all counters he could open before he sighed, "Are you fine with this?" he carefully watched Hongjoong, "I mean, we both going out for dinner, would that be alright for you?"

Hongjoong cooly shrugged, "I rather eat with a stranger than starve with a mate," 

Seonghwa wasn't sure what he meant by that, but he marched toward the door either way. He assumed it was a yes. Quickly grabbed his wallet and phone, he waited for Hongjoong to run in and quickly pulled in his sweatpants and hoodie.

Hongjoong tried to catch up with Seonghwa the moment they stepped out of the door. 

And damn it, Seonghwa and his long legs, he didn't say it, but the latter noticed, and kindly walked slower than he usually would that it wounded Hongjoong's pride. In the end, Hongjoong ended up walking in front, in a much more jogging speed.

Even after all their years together, Hongjoong recalled someday that he would not ever tell Seonghwa about this after, but he remembered. 

It was quick. 

It was sudden. 

And most important of all,

It was a date. Hurridly stomping, Hongjoong snorted at the thought and continued walking front, ignoring the weird stare given by the man behind him.

_It was their first date._

* * *

Seonghwa automatically set himself on the couch, letting Hongjoong take over the bed for the first few nights before they were comfortable enough. Though he knew their wedding would approach in three days, he had no heart to push either of them into a more unsettled atmosphere. Not when the elephant in the room was overweighting above their heads.

It was almost two in the morning. Seonghwa couldn't seem to fall asleep, and there were so many things spinning his mind. He felt bad. Hongjoong probably was not prepared for this. He might be one well-known wizard on their faculties, including Seonghwa, but he was not purposed to be on the same battleground as him.

Not when Seonghwa had spent years of training, but Hongjoong didn't.

Now, now. Seonghwa was nowhere in discrediting the latter, but he had doubts. He had seen Hongjoong's skill in fighting before, had observed his courage vibrating through the arena in their midterm and final competitions for the school combat year-end tests. He had watched Hongjoong ever since he was a freshman. (His excuse; not stalking him, but Hongjoong had a majestic aura surrounded him each time he held his staff, and that was what mesmerizing.) 

But campus fighting and actual fighting that could potentially cause severe damages and injures are two different things. Seonghwa gave Hongjoong more credits than he would because he deserved it, but he did not know if Hongjoong can handle the tension and tightness in each combat training that the young Park had been through all his life. And the school ground had more rules and restrictions. But the fighting arena? Brutal. The only state was to not rampage on your enemies, no killing, yet the chance of being fell into a longtime coma from a dark magic spell, or lost an arm or leg still happen.

Seonghwa might be confident, but he wouldn't be much so when his partner would get hurt in any form, be it his future husband or not.

He was soft-hearted.

And that what made WIT so anticipated from the sorcerers' community. Since the audiences, audibly, would be filled by magical powers possessors, prefer the enjoyment and pleasure in witnessing their kinds drain each other's health out, which seemed more important than the contestants' status—a bunch of heartless bastards.

Once he inherits his family's position, he would appeal this bullshit to the administration. 

Because who the _fuck_ made the rules? 

* * *

The Parks and the Kims have agreed that the young men would be rested until the end of the ceremony before they begin their practice routine. Except neither of them couldn't seem to breathe properly. Seonghwa had to look through the stack of magazines for designed wedding suits while Hongjoong called the wedding planner, baring through the cheerful lady's ranting about what color the napkins would be, and where they would arrange the balloons along with many things drifted through her high-pitched vocal. 

Hongjoong awkwardly laughed through the call, nodding along even if she couldn't see him. He checked through his watch on his other hand. The young wizards sat in the back of a limo on their way to meet their parents.

This was going to be just great.

Upon arriving at the famous restaurant on floor fifty-fifth of the highest building in Seoul, Seonghwa was greeted by a warm hug from Mrs. Kim, while the other wizards calmly smiled at them at the big circular table. As busy as the parents were, Mrs. Kim didn't seem to lose her cool when she talked and continuously boosted up the atmosphere. Seonghwa beamed at her words here and there, gently helped Hongjoong with his seat and posture as his parents nodded at the blue hair wizard, a form of affirmation.

At some point during the feast, all the wizards began discussing the WIT, Hongjoong asked a few questions out of curiosity, and Seonghwa attentively listened by the side, taking notes over every answer given, sometimes inserting a few topics, or answered Hongjoong. They talked about their plans, weddings, school, training times, and even their future after the tournament. Both sides of the parents were comfortable with each confession and allowed the boys to do whatever they wanted.

Hongjoong thought it wasn't as stressful as he reminded himself, his parents were okay with him, same as Seonghwa's. And deep inside, he felt content with it—a sense of validation.

He hoped Seonghwa would feel the same. The other was just nodding along, however.

Desserts were served soon after their talks. Hongjoong stared at the strawberry cake in awe, caught Mrs. Park's attention. That was the first time he ever heard her giggled in sound. The lady was looking at him in fondness, and he felt somewhat embarrassing. Not many people would gush over strawberry cakes. At least not many to be witnessed at the same table.

Mrs. Park smiled at him, "you seem to like strawberry, Hongjoong?"

"Y-yes. I really like anything with strawberry. It's my to-go." Hongjoong noticed all eyes were now on him, not through business purposes, but the amusement of a particular expression over a simple piece of cake. He felt childish and exposed. But Seonghwa's stares beat him to it. The latter was watching him, Hongjoong just couldn't read his face, oddly when it didn't show anything distinct emotion but merely a stare.

"Ah, that's adorable, my Seonghwa loves strawberry desserts, too." she stared at her son this time, her expression was also undecipherable.

"M-mother!" Seonghwa uttered. Now it was the blonde hair wizard's time to blush, and Hongjoong chuckled at that. Guess that he wasn't the only one going to die from embarrassment tonight.

Mrs. Kim looked at Hongjoong while cutting the cake and set it onto his plate. 

"I told them to make it for you," and brightly turned to Seonghwa, "I didn't know you would like it, too. Have some, darling." as she made a small gesture of inviting.

Seonghwa politely nodded before he took the small pie from her knife. 

The fathers discussed with each other about business coming up in a few months while their mothers chatted with them for the rest of the night. Hongjoong laughed along with the ladies, Seonghwa was quietly eating on his tiramisu, smiled together with them sometimes when Mrs. Kim cracked a joke. Hongjoong scooped a spoon of creme brulee into his mouth, having a morsel of sweetness in the tip of his tongue, not realizing the corner of his lips had a dap of cream lingered.

Until he felt a soft fabric lightly touched his lips that he turned to the side, noticing Seonghwa whipped the small trade of sweet off his face before he set the napkin down.

"You had something on your face. It's gone now," Seonghwa spoke naturally, unfazed, leaving a sputtered Hongjoong touching his face in bewilderment.

"T-thanks."

Mrs. Park and Mrs. Kim shared the same look almost instantly.

* * *

Saturday, document day as it seemed.

The young couple drove to the record office as they were led to the marriage center. Hongjoong felt the tension intensely as soon as he stepped in the glassed office, looking around at the working table before a young man marched in and took his seat.

"Good morning, gentlemen. I've been informed about your arrival. Here are the documents that you guys need to sign in, take your time to read carefully, and write down your information."

Hongjoong stared at the paperwork. A heap of sigh hesitated under his breath before he gathered himself and picked up the pen from the table.

_It was happening._

He knew he had choices after, and it would be no one's business once everything ended. But it was still a burden. He didn't feel like marrying at the age of twenty-two. Too young. And too, unwillingly in many ways.

They were strangers signing up for a tie between their wrists. Consent or not, they were still strangers. 

It was an unsettled feeling. Something was nagging at Hongjoong. He suddenly felt out of place. As if he was not supposed to be there.

But wouldn't it be too late for him to run away? If only he knew what he should be doing. He was a mess.

Although subsiding his chaotic thoughts, Seonghwa looked more composed than him, and Hongjoong wondered what the other boy was thinking. He felt nauseous. 

He tried to keep it down, though.

Held on the pen for life, Hongjoong closed his eyes to push the discomfort out of his chest. He thought this was it; once they leave this place, they would be one. The temporary be damned. They would be one, together, as a couple.

Drawing out his last tightened breath, Hongjoong scribbled his signature over the small section at the bottom corner of the document.

This was it.

* * *

It wasn't as bad as Hongjoong imagined. Ever since they moved in, Seonghwa did his best to make small conversations with Hongjoong. Despite that they were frightened by the thought of being together, indifferent to one another, they still made some efforts.

They observed each other hobbies, habits, and personalities. Then talked whenever they have something popped on top of their minds. It was awkward. But it was progressing. 

Hongjoong never tried to guide out the tension between them, and neither was Seonghwa. And they were exhilarating about that. Seonghwa dragged him to the grocery store to get the supplies and food for the week after their time at the record office, leaving an unfit Hongjoong standing there, not knowing if he should help to pick the fruits into the cart, or just wait until his "legal husband" done with his shopping. Seonghwa turned to the shorter, who felt very out-of-place the moment before gave him a questioning look,

"What are you doing? Come here." Hongjoong shyly followed.

"You should tell me what you eat, so at least I can make the food without having you spit any of them outright after it sets on the table." Seonghwa jokingly nudged the other's arm. "Just so you know, I eat everything."

"Hey!" grumbled Hongjoong, "I'm not that picky." He took offended at that.

"Oh? Really?" challenged Seonghwa, his husband was reading him, and Hongjoong felt like an open children's book. "You seemed like the guy who dislikes veggies."

"Yeah, you're right, greens are nasty." Hongjoong made a face.

"I thought so," the latter snorted, "you eat like a child. Especially last night, you legit picked out all the vegetables when we ate with our parents. That was a sight."

"Oh my God, hush!" whined Hongjoong, "I eat whatever I want. That dish was full of bell peppers you can't expose for that! Also, I do eat greens sometimes, just not always!"

"Sure, darling." Seonghwa laughed, watching Hongjoong's eyes almost popped out of his sockets.

Seonghwa deserved a beating from him. And Hongjoong made sure to note that for later.

Not much later, when Hongjoong started gushing over the snacks and yogurt section, cheerfully put down bottles of them into the cart. He looked so excited over the various yogurt brands' choices before he could even settle any of them by the sweets section.

Seonghwa thought he was adorable. 

* * *

The wedding ceremony happened around two in the afternoon. The young couple spent hours with their designed stylists and hairdressers, dressing up and took their wedding photos a few hours before the celebration since the ass-crack of the morning.

Not the most beautiful day, but at least they both could swing through whatever door they pushed.

They were stiff and shy, clearly couldn't look at each other eyes for more than two seconds, and did give some discouragement to the photographer, but the young, experienced man did not give up but attempted to praise them.

There were magical things about photos in the magical world. They moved. And just like regular iPhone (yes, wizards do have electronic devices) live images, these are actual framed moving pictures, which spiced the decors into a more advanced level.

It wasn't supposed to be part of the plan, to take wedding pictures like this. But Mrs. Park was right beside his mother, so Hongjoong couldn't whine about ditching it. Not when the lady looked as excited as her. He turned to Seonghwa, who showed the same expression as him. And they agreed to this. Oh, _dear_.

The photographers took over a dozen photos (must be his mother's request with the poses,) and Hongjoong felt like he could never be stiffer than now. Leaning into Seonghwa's chest with his warm fuzzy, striped sweaters and summer makeup look with an orange beret, the first set before he went through three other extra outfits, not counting his wedding suit, Hongjoong felt like a pet in a case.

Seonghwa didn't seem to complain as much. 

The shorter man understood, he was doing the same. Just hoped that their mothers wouldn't call it out.

Until they were dressed back up in their wedding clothes, the photographer requested for a kissing pose. Seonghwa didn't know what to do with his hands, and Hongjoong just stood there, feeling misplaced than ever.

But then, Hongjoong thought, what _else_ could he lose? Really. It was their last door. 

Either all or nothing.

So he took a step.

The photographer asked them again, pleading for their participation. Hongjoong miraculously recovered much faster than Seonghwa, which was a record, then gave out a weak cough to snap Seonghwa's attention back before he wrapped his arms around the taller man's neck. Seonghwa almost lost his balance when Hongjoong's lips pressed on his softly, lingered for a moment as he closed his eyes. Hongjoong nearly pulled away from him when he saw no reaction until Seonghwa realized he was just standing there like a froze iceberg, the taller man pulled him back from his waist and returned the kiss, pressed in. 

Hongjoong could hear the faint glee from their photographer amidst their eyes closed. And Seonghwa pushed a bit more with his lips, licking around and immersed himself until Hongjoong was crushing under the lack of air. And Seonghwa parted them away, letting the blue hair man breathe before he leaned in again, and gave a soft peck on his lips that reddened Hongjoong's cheeks from the extension of shyness. 

Seonghwa's stare looked so tender and delicate. It made Hongjoong whimpered. He didn't, though. Yet he couldn't take his eyes off the other this time, as if they were both in a trance that seemed impossible to break away.

He didn't sign up for this, Hongjoong internally screamed.

The photographer smiled as if he conquered some sort of world championship, clapped his hands in the air before he pulled his camera into his view, checking through all of the taken pictures and nodded satisfyingly.

"I just got the most magnificent photoshoot in my entire career. Well-done gentlemen! I will send the folders to Lady Kim in a few more days. Congratulations on your marriage." before he packed his tools up and walked away, leaving the wordless couple behind.

"I-...I'm going to the restroom," stuttered Hongjoong as he stumbled out of the latter's hold, heading towards the public restrooms at a fast pace without looking back.

Seonghwa could still feel the mellowness hindered on his own lips.

* * *

There were people.

Lots of people.

Too many people.

Hongjoong couldn't recall what was happening until the moment he whispered, "Yes, I do." He was already on the step and held Seonghwa's hand. They put the rings through each other's fingers, and he felt committed. They were bound.

_It had begun._

Seonghwa leaned in to kiss him again, and it wasn't as awkward as earlier, but more natural this time. He could hear the "oohs" coming from his group of friends at the middle row, and felt the need to go and smack each of their heads. Hongjoong kissed back, a little gentle this time before they partway and deeply glanced into each other brown eyes. 

_A connection had been made_.

Everyone was cheering, some whistled, and most clapped their hands in enjoyment. Hongjoong felt lightheaded, and he held on his husband for balance before they both went down the stairs, toward where their parents sat.

_The moment they shared touch, the wheel had started rolling toward the direction of the hourglass._

_It was rolling._

_The wheel of Fate._

* * *

"So, how is Seonghwa-hyung so far?" Yunho sat by next to him, sipping on a wine glass of Pepsi, tapping at the blue hair wizard. 

Right, Yunho supposedly passed the age of drinking but still thought alcohol might appear foreign to him.

Hongjoong gazed up at him, distractedly, "Oh, hey." before staring at the people by the dance floor, "He's alright, I guess." he shrugged, "I mean, we haven't fought yet, so I guess it's a good sign."

Yunho nodded anticipatedly, "Great to hear that, for all I know, he is a nice guy." Hongjoong didn't say much at that. "You're lucky it wasn't the Freshman stalker from months ago. I heard he cried in the middle of the campus hearing about your marriage. Kinda felt bad for the dude."

"By King Yeomra's throne, Yunho." Hongjoong groaned, "Could you and Mingi, please just stop talking about him?" Yunho laughed at that. The sounds belted out lightly,

"I was joking. Either way, congratulations, hyung. I'mma leave before Seonghwa-hyung gets jealous." He got up from his seat and walked toward the dance floor.

"Jung Yunho!" Hongjoong whined, he had enough of this, if this was how his friends regularly treated him, the man for sure betted that they would carry this into their graves.

"He has a point, though." Hongjoong spun his head toward the voice so fast he almost got a neck cramp.

"-What?" 

Seonghwa sat beside him, his introduction with the other houses had been settled. Hongjoong felt exhausted during the greeting, so he excused himself to the table in the corner, waiting for his husband to talk with the rest of the other clans' leaders.

"Well, you sit here looking all pretty like that, if saying I wouldn't feel a thing, that would be my greatest lie." Seonghwa shrugged, unbothered.

"Wow, Seonghwa. Baby, ain't you feel awkward saying that?" Hongjoong retorted with a laugh. 

They had been going with this ever since yesterday, using disgusting nicknames every once a sentence just to rile the other's reaction up. Hongjoong felt playful with how silly they acted, but he preferably did that than feeling like married to mountain rocks more than half of the time. It was their little bickering sessions that he enjoyed since the span of forty-eight hours. No regret.

"I was just speaking the truth, sweetheart." 

"Oh my God, you're embarrassing," cringed Hongjoong, "Stay away from me, Devil." 

Seonghwa gave out a content laugh. It was fun speaking to Hongjoong. He felt like they would click so well even if they weren't going through this circumstance. But Fate was a unique being. And this was how their Fate ended up as.

No, he wasn't refusing, opposite even, he welcomed it despite how turbulent it was.

* * *

After being dropped back to their apartment, Hongjong harshly pulled out the tie from his neck and jumped straight into the bed with his arms spread as he buried his face into the bedding with a groan, ignoring if it would mess his makeup not. Seonghwa followed behind him, sat on the chair by their desk, legs folded up as he watched his husband.

The taller man chuckled when Hongjoong bemoaned; voice muffled under the bed, "If I knew getting married would be this tiring, I rather stayed single."

"It's not like we have a choice, Chief." Seonghwa playfully replied, 

"Touche." 

Hongjoong rolled his body over, back lying on the bed. He blew his hair out from his face. The former pushed back locks tangled around the blanket, formed a blue halo on top of his head. "You know, Seonghwa. Usually, at this moment, we supposed to have sex."

Seonghwa raised his eyebrows, surprised by the other's words, "Well, do you want to?"

"No."

"When why are you telling me that?" He wondered what was Hongjoong thinking, 

"I mean, honestly speaking? Sure. I would bang you asap, only if we are one-night stand, though. I can't stand looking at you the day after and maybe for three hundred and seventy more days." He retained the monotone with eyes set on the beige-colored ceiling. "I don't think my mind is ready for that."

"Thanks, I'm glad you think I'm hot," earning a snort from Hongjoong. 

"You're welcome."

Hongjoong pushed himself up the bed and strolled toward the closet on their right wall before pulling out a set of pajamas. It was a cute blue banana pattern _(blue?)_ with glasses. The house sandals scratched on the ground as he walked out of their share bedroom, heading to the bathroom.

"I'm going to shower."

"Okay," nodded Seonghwa, who also stood up and walked to the kitchen, poured himself a cup of water. Settling it onto the coffee table, he went to grab the extra blanket and pillow that were folded nicely by the edge of the sofa before he flatted them out. Picking his fan from the bedroom, Seonghwa performed a small emundatio spell before the printed footsteps and little particles on the floor. The hidden lines of dirt floated around him before they launched through the open windows and vanished under the night sky.

He searched up on the internet for a specific spell that could completely wipe out all of the dirt in vain. The only way to do that, sadly, was to apply for housemaid jobs, where the company would teach their employers the charm. But the never-ending dust remained in their house, regardless where, always annoyed him

Seonghwa swore he could rip his skin out just by staring at the dirt. They stood there, being useless and dirty as much as he was disgusted.

He denied that he was a clean-freak, much to Hongjoong's words a few days ago. 

But nobody wanted to hear that blue bark-but-no-bite seven-point sixty-two centimeters shorter of a chick's opinion, especially _not_ Seonghwa. Thank you very much.

He looked up for in the lint rollers from their nearby convenience store website. Maybe this was his ultimate weapon, the dirtiness in their apartment every time he woke up was making him insane. Hongjoong looked at him weirdly when they moved in, seeing him still wiping the living room for the fourth time of the night. It seemed like he was used to his cleaning habit now. The other just stepped by, letting him do his thing without a single question after that stupid remark.

Seonghwa still had to make Hongjoong clean the room, though. But he couldn't because he felt awkward. Maybe they should warm up with each other first before they were comfortable enough to share the same bed. 

Then, he would make Hongjoong clean his things up.

He had to, or angry Seonghwa would be on his way even if he liked it or not.

Yet, before he got back at the cleaning duty, a loud yelp boomed straight from the bathroom.

He had half a mind to function before said voice with the yelp turned into small whimpers, and a thud carried soon after, followed along was the thump sound of a body hit into the wall before it slid down, an endless stream of water raced out from the hung-up shower head.

The liquid flowed naturally. Mayhaps mixed with the bright iron taste of water the moment Seonghwa crushed the bathroom door with a destroying spell, beholding an unconscious Hongjoong soaked wet with disastrous lines of marks on his right arm, head lolling to the side of the bathtub wall, unmoving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah oops.


	2. Kleptomancy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *WARNING*: Description of wounds, blood, character's injured. Please read with caution!
> 
> Ok, ok, I was planning to update this au once a week, as in, every Thursday. But guess what, I have so much fun writing this chapter, and apparently finished it one day prior so sksksksksk guess what it's here!! :'D
> 
> Also, once again (might have to put it in every note) no beta-read, we die like men pfffff so I apologize if there are any weirdly written sentences and grammar mistakes. ;-;
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!!

Curse marks.

That was the first thing Seonghwa noticed.

The red gushing out darkly and painfully, swallowing in between the lucid stream of water. Seonghwa didn't need to use the rest of his left brain to understand how much pain Hongjoong was in, so he quickly ran to the closet and pulled out a piece of fabric. He returned shortly and wrapped it around the latter's injured arm in fear.

Shit shit shit _shit_.

Hongjoong must have knocked out from the intensity of the ache. The scream was blatant, almost could be heard by the neighbors. And the blonde hair wizard gambled with all of his potions someone would knock on their door sooner or later. He didn't have time for this. Not when his husband just got a nasty dark magic hex on his skin.

He wondered who did this. Because he would peel this fucker's skin out once Hongjoong heals back.

Worriedly put Hongjoong left arm over his shoulders, Seonghwa tried his best to lift the man out of the tub, begged for no further gash or excessive blood loss. He didn't even pay attention to the nakedness of the man, but the faint breathing and cold skin contrasted to his almost boiled one behind the loose white shirt. He didn't even get to change his wedding suit. His mother would kill him. Hopefully, there would be no bloodstain after this.

It was a little struggle carrying Hongjoong out from the bathroom in a bridal way. Still, Seonghwa managed to drop them down with a heavy sigh on the sofa. He moved the other's arm on top of his bare stomach before he reached his phone that was lying chilly on the coffee table and tabbed frightenedly for one specific number in the contact.

He had to call someone that could take them both to the Redemption Wings Hospital, best if they could ask for the best healer in the Decursify Department. The marks were harsh and ugly, and just by seeing a small glimpse of it, Seonghwa grimaced. 

Whoever intended to hurt Hongjoong, which he desperately wanted to know, wasn't playing with the spell.

It was a hated spell. One with dark magic. And fuck. 

The first thing you ever learn at school is to _NOT_ mess with dark magic.

So who this offender was, stamping seven ripped prints of charm on someone, so far he said, hadn't seen acting any much rudely in front of anybody but himself. And Seonghwa could excuse that it was a one-time thing. Hongjoong didn't go around and disturb anyone, either. Unless he did have something fishy outside Seonghwa's knowledge, he might have to question the shorter once he woke.

An attack concerning a WIT contestant months before their tournament. _A fucking WIT contestant._

Who really had this big of a ball, Seonghwa queried.

For now, all Seonghwa could do was spamming on his phone. Hopefully, it would connect to Jongho before even ended up inside his voicemail. Nervously clicked on the red "Jongple 🍎" nickname as he swallowed, thick voice snuck up and stuck right at his Adam's apple, Seonghwa silently prayed that Jongho was anywhere but not by his phone. That would be so luckless. 

Jongho had his newly bought flying dragon. And Seonghwa needed a ride with that without having to call his parents or Hongjoong's parents, and make a ruckus out of everything. Because the moment this incident ever passed out, not only Hongjoong would be fucked, but he would be, too. And that could end up with neither of them attending the WIT. Korea wouldn't have the chance to reach the top chart of their glory.

He suspected that this must be a scheme to ruin their participation. 

It was suspicious. _Very_ suspicious, no matter how much Seonghwa thought of it.

The third beep was the breaking point before Jongho's voice roughly spoke through the other line, sounding puzzled.

Seonghwa peeked at the wooden clock hung up on the wall. Shit, it was 2 AM. Jongho must have been sleeping. The couple got back together quite late since their endless greetings to the wedding attenders, which delayed them much later than their friends, who left the wedding a few hours prior.

Jongho didn't even get to think when Seonghwa wavily told through the speaker. 

"Jongho, can you come to our place with your dragon? Red code. Hongjoong is injured."

There were instant ruffed sounds of fabrics, probably came from Jongho's blanket before his voice raised, sounding as urgent as the older. "Hongjoong is injured? What the- How?" 

"Just come with your dragon and don't tell anyone, quick 'cause I'm not sure how long he can still hold. The damaged marks are quite deep."

"Fuck," muttered Jongho, "Okay, on my way, be there in five, will try to get there as fast as I can." More ruffling sounds voiced through the phone before a beep ended their conversation, and Seonghwa let out a tired exhale, dropping his phone down into the couch and closed his eyes briefly.

Seonghwa raised and ran inside their room again, returning by Hongjoong with a fresh set of clothes before helpfully putting them on the latter.

This whole week had been a nightmare.

The moment he heard a knock from the window behind where their sofa laid, Seonghwa whipped his head back, greeting a Jongho sitting on top of his glorious red dragon gracefully flapped its gigantic wings.

"Hyung! How is he?" Jongho whispered but still loud enough for Seonghwa to hear, not trying to wake anyone up. And Seonghwa appreciated it, one moment if anyone peaked their heads out of their windows, he would be in trouble. _They_ would be in trouble.

Seonghwa carried Hongjoong's unconscious body up and used his strength to lift the latter into his arms, used his knee to keep the blue hair wizard into his chest, and his leg pushed on the bridge of the window. The taller man forced the window up as widest as he could before positioned their posture into a secured stand. Jongho held out his thick blade from behind his black cloak, making a bridge between them so Seonghwa could walk on. Seonghwa shakingly stepped on the bright silver blade and ran on it, balancing the body in his arms and jumping through the air before he formed a small landing talisman. He settled safely on top of Jongho's dragon.

It took two seconds for Jongho to calm his dragon down, struggled a bit by the added weight before he patted its red hardened skin, giving a small kick on the side for it to move on.

"Head to the hospital, Hwayongie." Jongho urged.

Seonghwa briefly explained what happened on their way to the hospital, and described the injury as best as he could, hidden underneath the blood-soaked white cloth. The latter nodded along, looked somewhat worried and rushed as he tried to lead them to the place as fast as possible, ignoring the constant slaps of wind and the sharp drop of temperature. The dragon speedily splinted through the air.

Until they landed down to the parking lots, Seonghwa immediately climbed down and ran inside the ER hallway, screamed for someone to come and take Hongjoong into a safe place. Jongho followed inside with Hongjoong's body on his back, his head leaned on the side of the younger's shoulder, oblivious to everything surrounding him.

The nurses rushed toward the voice before surprising to see the Parks' youngest son stood along with two other figures, looking complete run-down and panicked. 

"Hurry, call someone from the Decursify Department, he's in danger." Seonghwa calmed himself before he held on Hongjoong's body, the other's blue hair blocked the views away, but anyone could tell he wasn't attentive. 

Someone walked out from the elevator at the end of the hallway before rushing towards them, heavily breathing, his white hospital coat wrinkled on the side with a plastic board of paperwork. The man raised his board up, staring at Hongjoong and Seonghwa. Concerns took over his sight. "Mr. Park, how worrisome seeing you here. And Mr. Kim, too. What had happened to him?"

Seonghwa begged them to hurry up and check through on the marks, his mental screamed in agony, hoping them to quickly lead them into a room and pull this curse out of the other. It didn't make him feel any more pleasant when nothing had been solved, and a lifeless Hongjoong still laid there, numbed to the world.

The doctor scented the earnest in his voice. He instantly rushed them over the benches on the side of the hallway before pulling out a stretcher from the wall with a spell. Telling the boys to lay the blue hair wizard there, he transported the into a white room with his comportatio magic, pushed the bed onto the examining table, and carried Hongjoong, letting the young man lay on of the marble top. Beforehand, he told Jongho to sit and wait for them since he had no kin connection with the patient. Jongho easily complied.

The young doctor, perhaps still in his primeval twenties, looked through the wound and frowned, not looking too happy with the ripped skin and bleeding marks from the boy's arm. He glanced up at Seonghwa, demanding an explanation. 

The blonde wizard described everything as he could, hopelessly sighed and ruffled his hair, praying that nothing would be too uncurable. The doctor looked over the marks one last time and shook his head. 

This cut was not a typical case; it was a dark magic curse. The doctor's ring lit up in bright blue light before he pressed his palm on top of the marks, performing some healing runes. The current of magic flowed from the ring slowly absorbed into Hongjoong's skin. The ugly sight somewhat closed back by itself before the man paused, yet soon after, the blackness of the hex flayed again, showing the curse as if nothing changed. The doctor clucked his tongue. It was a stubborn cause. And it seemed like he had to ask for outside help to get rid of this unfavorable ailment.

"Mr. Park, I don't think my healing ability would be proficient from this type of magic. I'm sure you've realized that, too." The doctor apologetically looked at him. He bit his lips as if hesitating but willing to reveal a secret. The doctor gestured Seonghwa to come close, pushing both of them out of the four-wall. He walked toward the washing room with the other confusedly follow before locking the door, creating a temporary illusion to block away from the eavesdropping before he whispered, "I actually have a friend who's a dark magic user-" Seonghwa widen his eyes at that, "-No, no! Not what you think." The doctor hissed, "For your concern, no, he's alive, and no, he doesn't go crazy." 

Seonghwa stared at him in bewilderment, definitely being limited by the knowledge the administration's education system ever given him. All he had ever heard were rumors of how dark magic could drive one man to the peak of insanity. He didn't even know anyone who used dark magic. And hearing from someone, a doctor at best, telling him he befriended with a dark wizard, was something very mind-blowing.

"I will call him right now, but we will have to take Mr. Kim to his place to cure this, I want to save him, too. But my capacity is limited, and I know that you're one excellent young wizard, don't get me wrong. Yet if we don't treat this wound now, and I know neither of us can, Mr. Kim wouldn't be able to breathe in the next twenty hours," Now this was one second worth to panic, Seonghwa frightened.

"-So if you give me the consent on behalf of Mr. Kim, I will gladly guide both of you to my friend's place and depend on his power to ridden this curse."

Seonghwa felt like he didn't even have a decision at this point. Ever since this marriage happened, he had been the one being directed by his surroundings for some reason. And as faithful he was to his family, it felt overwhelming so many times. He thought of giving up being the top, but it couldn't get further when he refrained from such an idea, laughing it off as if it was just an instant moment of heedless.

But this marriage made Seonghwa upset beyond understanding. Like a mannequin being dressed in an enclosure; Being locked, being barred, and manipulated. He felt as if he had been living on edges. Right at this point, he didn't even have any option but to seek help from the mysterious side of the world. The hand that he had honestly never touched or known about until now.

As much as selfish Seonghwa would like to think for himself, he couldn't. Hongjoong was in this hodgepodge with him, too. And to deny such a chance of life-saving, the latter would rot Seonghwa's heart to his deathbed. The blonde hair conflicted with himself for over a minute. The doctor conceded and let the man thought for the moment as he leaned back into the door, watching him with a complicated expression.

It was not like Hongjoong had any fault here, and maybe Seonghwa would have so many questions after the shorter's recovery, saving him would be the priority. So Seonghwa groaned, decided to risk it, and nodded, setting his consent. 

Fuck, Hongjoong owned him this time.

The doctor smiled at him, having a little sprinkle of hope in his eyes before he opened the door, walking toward the stilled blue hair man and held his hand. He stretched his other hand for Seonghwa to reach, and uttered a charm, luring them into the pitch dark tornado, leaving a small yelp from Seonghwa's lips. 

Then they were gone from the white room.

* * *

"Changkyunie! Changkyun! Open the door!" The doctor punched on the door of a small condo house harshly, both held on his phone with sound connected from the phone of this dark wizard friend and aggressively knocking on the door.

Seonghwa was genuinely curious about their relationship. They must be very close friends for the doctor to act so comfortably and blatant toward the man. A dark wizard. Good fucking ridden because, in all of his life, Seonghwa never thought he would ever associate with dark magic. Yet, here he was. He was lost and helpless. The doctor seemed familiar with the setting, though, Seonghwa notified that.

But he didn't say a thing, just stood behind with Hongjoong on his back, sent a quick text to Jongho, telling the man to go home first since he had classes in the morning and thanked him again for dealing with Seonghwa's sudden disruption.

Jongho apologized for not being able to stay. His astronomy class required him to pass his cryptozoology class, and the sophomore needed the credits for both courses. So he had no choice but to leave. But Seonghwa assured him that everything would be fine, and he will make sure to update him whenever he could. That seemed to relax the red hair boy down. 

"IM CHANGKYUN!" The angry growl ripped from the doctor's throat snapped Seonghwa out of his phone in shock. 

Quickly after, the metal door of the small condo house opened up, a young man with dark bangs peaked out from the door. His deep voice roughly vibrated through the air in annoyance, staring at the loud man beyond him.

"Minhyuk-hyung, what the fuck?! It's two forty-eight in the fucking morning. _WHY_ are you here?" His voice thickened with a thin silver pair of glasses sliding by the edge of his nose. He looked behind Minhyuk, who Seonghwa now learned was the doctor's name, before surprised by the people behind him, "Hyung, why the hell is the Parks and the Kims' sons standing in my yard?" Changkyun dangerously scolded, carefully glancing at Seonghwa for an instant attack. Not that Seonghwa had the will to attack him, though. He hoped this Changkyun guy could see his silent reply.

"I know it too early for this," The dark wizard dryly huffed at that,

"- but it's my night shift today at the ER, and we kinda have a special situation here. I need your help, Changkyun." Minhyuk rushed and launched himself inside the house, welcoming the decoration as if it was his own house. Changkyun looked skeptical at first but left out a tired sigh seeing how careless and relaxed his friend was, before making his way, he quietly stood by the door in his gray pajamas. Seonghwa dubiously marched along, following the doctor with Hongjoong in the back, carefully watched the stranger.

Changkyun tapped twice on the door carpet with his heel, letting the young couple inside before sealing the door with a spell, which raised panic in Seonghwa's chest.

Minhyuk hastily explained, "It's for protection, don't worry. You know not many people are fond of dark magic users, he had to seal the door so that nobody can intrude his house." Seonghwa heaved an exhalation of understanding and settled Hongjoong down on the black couch in the living room. The other's head rested away from Seonghwa's arm and softly submerged into the soft cushion. 

Changkyun stepped closer to the other man, carefully observed over the cursed marks, and rubbed his thumb over the lines a few time before he scowled,

"Don't know what you think, kid, but whoever created this spell must be sicked in the head." He pushed his glasses up from his nose bridge, walking toward the bookshelf in the corner of the room, glided his hand through the section of books before he stopped on one, and pulled it out from the dark shelf. "This maniac decided to curse the boy with an energy eater malediction rune."

Seonghwa caught his head up, confused.

"To put it simply, these scar marks are inviting the little energy eaters to suck the hell out of your power and plasma until you get drained out like a raisin. In the end, you die from the torture while they stay under your skin permanently."

Seonghwa was horrified. If this was the extreme effect of the curse, must Hongjoong be in so much pain right now? Seonghwa couldn't fathom the idea of having his magic gotten sucked out. He unconsciously reached out and held Hongjoong's much smaller hand, staring at the lifeless body in a frenzy.

His heart throbbed achingly.

Seonghwa was a soft-hearted.

And he couldn't stand seeing his husband defeated under a brutal, ruthless charm like that, even if they were still stuck between the stage of strangers to acquaintances, without even letting Hongjoong had the chance to kick the culprit's ass. The blue hair seemed to be someone who would enjoy doing such a thing, and Seonghwa ensured he would give him every chance he could get for that moment. Kick this bastard's ass.

"What do....," Seonghwa looked up at the dark wizard, pleased urgently, "What do you want me to do? What can I do to help you? What can I do to save him?" Making the other raised his eyebrows. 

"I'm glad you ask, Park Seonghwa-ssi." Changkyun smiled at him wickedly, but Seonghwa knew it wasn't anything malice, more of a style to show his interest, "as long as you're willing to proceed through all of the requisites for Kim Hongjoong's decursify performance, he should be fine in two hours."

Seonghwa nodded eagerly, conjectured whatever path Fate had led them into this time.

"Great," laughed Changkyun, showing his sharp white teeth as he gathered a small pointed knife on his work-desk before stepping close to Seonghwa.

"First of all, I need your blood."

* * *

It was calm, maybe too quiet. 

He couldn't feel anything else but the numbness in his body, his head throbbed with every moment Hongjoong exhaled. His eyes tightly shut, but he wished with all his will to open them. 

He could revive slightly about what happened before he knocked out, but whatever occurred after was beyond his awareness. 

Hongjoong stood under the warm stream of water, almost reaching for the almond shampoo in the shower basket before an intense pain rushed all over his arm. 

It felt as if his brain was being crushed, and someone just ripped his right arm out of his body. And the pain wouldn't stop, Hongjoong lost his balance, leaned his body into the wall behind him, tripped his feet, and dropped down into the tub. The last thing he could remember was the loud bang from the door before he lost his eyesight, drowned into a trance of endless suffering.

He had no recall of how and why he got hurt, but it felt strangled when he was in the darkness, he could feel all the burning in his arms even if he couldn't move it. There were whisperings, somewhere echoed through his brain that clothed his sense of hearing. The only thing he could notice was that the small whizzing sounds as if a fire had run through all over him. Except, it was a black fire. Hongjoong wanted to scream and call help, but he couldn't scoot an inch from his finger, nor pushed sound out from his throat. As if he was a mummy, being buried ten feet below the ocean surface.

Yet, soon after, Hongjoong didn't know how much pain he was in or how much time had passed. Being fully exhausted and almost gave up with his subconsciousness. Almost allowed himself to be consumed by the darkness, submitted to it. But the pain stopped. _No_ , not stopped, it became more subsided, more compressed. Something had been injected in him that he felt so much easier to breathe than earlier, regardless of the fact he couldn't open his eyes or moving his body. And Hongjoong reached it, reached with his will to that source of energy, craving to pull him back to his alerted sense.

It was tender, comforting, and nearly dazzled his eyes. He felt empowered. It was a calling for his return. 

Hongjoong allowed such foreign force to help him, hauling him out from the unwelcomed burning inferno. And for sometimes, Hongjoong just let it there, embraced the energy until he could bundle his strength once again, warily opening his eyes. 

The dull light in the room helped him adjust his sight, and he was glad to not wake up anywhere with intense bright lights. That would be very unpleasant as the first thing rising up. Hongjoong tried to move his arm and gave out a held breathe in his movement, satisfied enough that he could finally be able to move his body now. Until he tried to push his other arm's fingers and accidentally brushed something soft by the side, Hongjoong weakly retracted his hand in surprise, not knowing what he just touched.

The said thing moved, gave away the weight on the bed he was in, Hongjoong tilted his head to the right side to see a tired-looking Seonghwa sitting there, soundlessly gasping at him.

"You finally awake," whispered the taller man, instantly moved his hands and held on Hongjoong's gently, rubbing it. Hongjoong decided not to mention the delicate gesture.

"How long have I been out? What time is it?" he croaked out, voice scratched and dry.

"Like about nine in the morning, you were out for only a few hours, don't worry." Hongjoong nodded, "I thought I would have to call our parents about this thinking you wouldn't wake up so soon. Our training session is starting in an hour." said Seonghwa, still slowly stroking his hand. "You think you can get up?"

Hongjoong grunted before pushing himself into the head of the bed. A few of his bones cracked, and his back seemed to stiffed a little, but Hongjoong managed.

He felt fine. 

Excellent, actually.

As if a new source of energy had entered him. And Hongjoong gathered himself together before got himself out of bed with the help of Seonghwa, who seemed anxious, not knowing what to do. His hands carefully settled on Hongjoong like he was fragile, and Hongjoong felt weird-out. He studied Seonghwa's face, questioning, "Why are you like this?"

"Like what?" confused Seonghwa,

"Like all touchy with me. Like I'm about to break." 

Seonghwa's movement stilled, and he withdrew his hands, starting Hongjoong and his unsettling feeling twisting in his stomach, 

Was that a wrong thing to say?

Seonghwa stepped back, letting Hongjoong adjusted his body with a few simple stretches, face still looked uncomfortable, his blue hair covered his sight once he bent down, stretching his legs and stood up again.

"What happened? Where are we?" Ignoring the silent lump in their conversation, Hongjoong pushed on, observing Seonghwa.

"You got cursed," Hongjoong stopped, this, he pretty much predicted, the amount of pain he felt at the time in that darkness hinted the cause. He just didn't know how and who cursed him.

"And it was dark magic, so I tried seeking help from a doctor in the Decursify Department at the downtown hospital." 

Hongjoong stiffed at his word, 

_A..._

_A dark magic curse?_

Sensing the other's shock, Seonghwa nodded in understanding, "I know, insane, right? So I called Jongho to take us there, you know we can't tell this to our parents," agreed Hongjoong, "so yeah, he's the only one who knew. Though, I bet the rest of the kids already knew about it, too. You know how Jongho is." Seonghwa sighed. A deep-felt sigh, as if he could fall and sleep immediately from the lack of rest, Hongjoong noticed the eye bags beneath his big, pretty eyes. "So the doctor suggested visiting his friend's place and ask for help. His friend is a dark wizard."

Hongjoong widened his eyes.

That was a lot of surprise in one story. A dark wizard's place? So this was that wizard's house? He was in a dark wizard's house???

He had so many questions, and Seonghwa looked at him like they have all day to talk about it.

"I mean, the fact that you're still breathing right now should assure you that he means no harm, right?" Explained Seonghwa, and that made sense, Hongjoong knew, but shouldn't they take more cautions with dark magic users? Even if he hadn't dropped dead at this point, shouldn't dark magic not suppose to be used? At least that the last time he was told.

"He saved your life." The taller remarked, leaving a dumbfounded blue hair wizard forming a light ' _oh_ ' on his lips. "The only way to cure a dark magic curse is to use another corrupted magic spell, you know, an eye for an eye." 

Holding upon Hongjoong stiffed appearance, the taller man shook his head, "Don't overthink, he's a good guy. He has been proving that all night. But let's get out of here. We don't have much time right now and..." he hesitated, "...You worried me." Seonghwa implied at the last sentence, feeling awkward all of a sudden with his confession. Leaving an astounded Hongjoong there, he walked out of the bedroom without looking back, notwithstanding the expression Hongjoong was having behind his shoulders.

"Ah," voiced the other wizard upon seeing Seonghwa walking into his living room, "Is the little birdy finally awake?"

Seonghwa politely smiled at the man, who now had changed his clothes into a red blouse and black ripped jean, he looked comfortable reading through his book with the glasses on, legs crossing on his sofa. Doctor Minhyuk was nowhere in sight, so he assumed the man must have left during the night.

"We have to leave now. Thank you so much for everything. We owned you." the blonde wizard bowed at him, making the man chuckled. 

"Oh my, Seonghwa, all I did was performing a spell. _You_ are the one who did most of the work here. You don't own me anything. Neither he is." Changkyun directed his head toward the guest room, folded his book with a purple bookmark before getting up.

"But without you, he wouldn't-"

"Cut that off, man." He grinned, "I appreciate the gratitude, but don't feel pressure over it, as I said, you did all the work." He assured again, "I should be the one who is thankful that you haven't 'Suri Suri Masuri' me right now."

 _Suri Suri Masuri_ was an instant death curse. The most powerful and dangerous spell has ever been used. And there was no counter-spell for it. It can only be used when you were a rank four in the college literacy. And not many people have the intensive flow of magic for such a spell to fully activated. But once someone cast that on you, especially a powerful wizard, you're a dead fish. And that gave Seonghwa a chill on his back because the last thing he would ever hex anyone would be using this bewitching spell. He waved his hands in shock, trying to clarify, causing Changkyun to laugh louder.

"I was joking! Don't take it too seriously. So far, you are much nicer than I expected." Seonghwa felt delighted in a little amount, "If you guys have to leave, feel free to do so, we held no hostage here. I also have tasks to do," The dark wizard stepped toward his bookshelf, settled the book into the second rack. Then he walked to his bedroom, gave a careful whisper passing by Seonghwa, "Remember, though. Don't tell anyone about me and this place, yeah? That would be my request for you." Seonghwa nodded at him in understanding, sealing his promise.

Hongjoong stepped out of the room the moment Changkyun shut his door, alerting Seonghwa to turn his back and looked at the shorter wizard uneasily pacing to him. "Where is he?" wondered Hongjoong shyly, earning a snigger from the blonde hair wizard, he retorted with his Satoori accent, "he just walked in his room, what took you so long?"

The latter responded embarrassedly, scratching the nape of his head, "I went to the toilet. Can I still see him?" Seonghwa shrugged until a deep voice boomed through the dark wizard's bedroom door, calling them, "Don't need to thank me, but you're welcome! Stay safe; that's all it matters!" his voice muffled behind the black door. I might need you guys to leave the house 'cause I have visitors in a few minutes, though. I can't explain any of this if they see you guys here!"

The young couple hurriedly moved in panic, Hongjoong bowed at the door where the man's voice was before followed his husband, both locked the entrance and walked away from the condo house, thoughts wrapped over their minds. 

Seonghwa made sure to check Hongjoong here and there. From the moment they called the cab until the moment they got home.

Before they even reached the taxi, though. Hongjoong and Seonghwa got a glimpse of professor Yoo in their potion class and their school Economics 101 teacher, professor Son walking toward the same street that the couple just went out from. Perhaps, even the same building that they just got out of. Seonghwa managed to pull them both away into a convenience store before they got caught, the two young wizards looking at each other confusingly, eyes full with unanswered puzzles.

Hongjoong felt the need to stay back in his potion class on Friday to talk to professor Yoo in the next the following week.

* * *

Seonghwa really needed to change his wedding suit, he felt stink. So the first thing he did after they opened the door was to shower. 

And maybe clean the bathtub because he remembered the last time, there was blood inside.

Toward seeing the latter, though, as Seonghwa observed, he recovered much quicker and appeared more vibrant than expected. Seonghwa couldn't bring to tell him or show out his cut palm, vivid with a large scar wrapped beneath a single bandage, so he stuffed his hand into his blazer pocket, despite how much he needed to talk about it. 

But Seonghwa didn't want to guilt-trip Hongjoong for anything. He asked for it himself.

Damn it, Seonghwa, and his generosity.

The energy in the magic world functioned quite simple. You gain them like nutritions, just make sure to stay hydrated and eat healthily to maintain the river of power in you. It was recommended to perform your magic once a day, so they don't remain rusty and ineffective. And it wasn't hard rebuilding your lost energy if you unintentionally, _or in his case_ , willingly pulled them out of your body just under any circumstance. You just need some good sleep. Yeah, that was the deal. But the downside of taken your energy out of your body can cause some common side effects, including migraine, dizziness, nausea, or worse, vision problems. And the last thing a wizard would need, not implied to all, but battlefront wizards like him, having no vision of his magic would be the most ravaged case.

Because he needed it badly, he needed the vision to see and possessed the arena with his power, with his energy to detect the competitors _and_ protect himself in a fight. Their session was starting in half an hour, and here Seonghwa was, might or might not, almost hurt himself with the shaving blade in the bathroom because of a black spot by the corner of his left eye.

 _Please_ , not now.

He groaned pitifully, hoping that by the end of the day, he didn't drop down before anyone's eyesight—especially someone with blue hair. Because the last thing he wanted was bombarded of questions coming from his friends, and Hongjoong specifically, who he saw and breathed in the same space legitimately twenty-five over eight.

And to make it worse, his session would start soon. Eden, his personal trainer, (now theirs), would definitely sniff out his questionable behavior. That man was too unnecessary witty for his look.

Seonghwa hoped he could cover their first day of practice without having any of them coming at his throat.

But the moment Eden knocked him off the mat with his phoenix's feather wand that the corner of his eyes blurred out a bit before he even got to blink, Seonghwa wanted to groan. It wasn't evident with the slight unfocus action, but Eden somehow caught on with his speed, furrowed his brows in concern. Not that he could say anything and messed up their session, though. Seonghwa held on his chest, gave a weak gasp in front of the mat, and looked overly debilitated when they had only begun the practice for twenty minutes.

He could do better than this, come on.

That being said, getting up with a ragged breath did not help any better. The blonde wizard almost settled back into his position before his trainer stopped him, looking a bit strained over his eyes, observing the young man while checking him, "You could be using a good break right now, Seonghwa. Not feeling well?"

Seonghwa smiled back tiredly, shaking his head, "Didn't sleep enough last night, that is all." 

But the latter didn't seem to buy it. Not that Eden could ask more, though. Seonghwa was a stubborn kid when he needed to.

The little paddling sounds became louder the moment Hongjoong jogged toward them from his fifteen-foot distance-of-safety, watching the other two curiously while holding on his golden staff. Hongjoong turned to ask Seonghwa, seeing the older boy's face seemed a bit a paler than his healthy honey tone skin, and Hongjoong felt blameworthy for some reason. As if he was the reason for Seonghwa to look so worn out. Seonghwa shook his head. Assured him, he was okay. That he didn't get much sleep last night because of worries, and Hongjoong stayed quiet after that.

He knew damn well the taller boy watched him all night when he was still in the literal imagery of a damsel in distress. 

So he didn't press on, proceeded to stay neutral with that silent pray that the session would end soon. Seonghwa will have to deal with it for the next five hours, somehow.

It turned out to be a record that they both got back to their apartment safely. The moment the blonde wizard stepped inside the house, he instantly ran inside their bedroom, rummaging for a new set of clothes when he was still sweating from the excessive amount of dampness. He promised that he could do better, much to Hongjoong harmless joked that "I thought you are a Park, what's wrong with you today?" when Seonghwa kept clutching his chest.

It wasn't painful. He was in no sort of pain, but Seonghwa's chest felt loaded. It was heavy yet empty at the same time. Heavy from the instant pressure of performing his magic when his body was continually screaming to rest. But empty because of the lack of energy that supposed to be overfilled inside his body like always. And it wasn't as if he could help it, Seonghwa bit his lips, breathing through the rocks compressed inside his chest in despair with his desperate counting for the day to end. Luckily, Eden stopped the fight before he even realized what time it was.

Fucking finally.

By the time he got out of his shower, Hongjoong was nowhere to be seen. He thought the latter would have stayed inside their bedroom, unbothered to the world, and Seonghwa's odd to the point of pervert, weird cleaning habit. 

Regularly, he swore he wasn't anything like this, despite the long, endless schedule that he insisted on following with all of his life, Seonghwa's priority was to keep everything sparkling clean. Yet, today, eating and lying down sounded more tempting than deemed.

He blamed this on his procrastinating agenda ever since this arrangement happened.

Seonghwa needed to stop overthinking and stressed himself out. And maybe not delaying his usual habitat in making a squeakingly tidy environment furthermore.

Should have been his new year's resolution, he noted. Though it might be too late. Seonghwa seemed to lost track of time anyways.

If someone asked what day is it, he would laugh and say it was already Christmas.

He was getting lazier day by day. And he wished someone would point it out for him, too. But Hongjoong looked like someone who would definitely support his procrastinating agenda. Seonghwa shook his head in defeat.

There was a loud banging sound coming from the kitchen. And the first thing he saw, from the corner of their counters, was a panicking blue hair wizard who seemed to scoop something up with two metal spoons in his hands. Seonghwa walked closer to observe in amusement, seeing Hongjoong picking up his felt over kimchi urgently, not before he put one into his mouth.

Ingredients were all over the place, as much as he would like to complain over the tainted orange dots on the white granite counter, Seonghwa constrained himself with the thought that apparently, this was Hongjoong's first time in the kitchen.

Correction, it was Hongjoong's first time making food in the kitchen.

It was a big bowl of bibimbap. It got mixed well, with fried eggs on top and dried cut seaweed with sesame seeds. Seonghwa would give him a nine for effort and kindness. But the oil pan on the stove? The halfway chopped spinach? The spilled kimchi? And maybe a little over-cooked rice? Bonus the extra unwashed bowls that Hongjoong placed out and gathered them all over the counters. He would check them all with a golden button. But Seonghwa took pride in his cooking skill.

And his cleaning skill.

So he rated it eight-point-five.

That was very generous of him, per se.

Hoongjoong's bibimbap actually tasted good. Like really good. Maybe it was his stomach talking, but he wouldn't change his mind about the kick of flavor. And Seonghwa ate like he had been starved for days.

Alright, that was not exaggerated, Seonghwa always ate like he was starved for days. But he really liked the food, and Hongjoong seemed to put on his bright smile and a big word called "proud" written right on his forehead, flipping a switch in Seonghwa.

He almost humiliated himself before he suspended his instinct to coo the man before him.

Hongjoong was like a child sometimes, and he couldn't believe they were the same age. For a fact, he could be tucking him to bed without feeling weirded-out. Not at all.

That was the _Kim Hongjoong Effect_ , named Seonghwa.

Kim Hongjoong had that majestic aura surrounded him; he was fierce, was strong, and was reliable. But he was also understanding, compromising, and a good heart. He had all the human qualifications every person would need.

It felt connected. And maybe very promising: Like a missing puzzle in a whole game set, like they existed to fill each other's greatness and weakness alike, like Seonghwa definitely was not gushing over him just because of a bibimbap bowl.

But he definitely was.

And as kind-hearted, as Hongjoong was, he volunteered to clean up and washed the dishes out of his will. Seonghwa didn't even get to protest in time before the shorter man had already settled the dirty bowls inside the metal sink, humming while soaking them. 

As if he had sensed something already. That was why he behaved in such ways—an odd of goodwill.

Seonghwa didn't like to spectate people, but he excused himself this time. It appeared as if the latter felt bad for Seonghwa's lack of performance today. And he showed somewhat ashamed for that. Because the last thing he needed was pity and guiltiness from other people. Seonghwa wanted to assure him, to inspirit him, to let him know he was more capable than what he had today. And if Hongjoong ever found out that he pulled almost three-fourths of his energy inside him into Hongjoong's body, he hoped that the other wouldn't be wounded over his act of self-sacrifice. It was selfless, sure. But it was an emergency—a life-saving situation.

And Seonghwa was a soft-hearted.

He really hoped that Hongjoong wouldn't think as if he was responsible for Seonghwa's action. He clearly wasn't.

Returning with his wrinkled hands, Hongjoong beamed at him while wiping the wetness onto his now freshly changed striped sweater, and Seonghwa felt as if a few counts of his heartbeat went missing the moment the latter wrapped his arm around his shoulders, bumping.

"You can sleep with me tonight."

"What?" confused Seonghwa,

"You heard me right. You can come inside." Hongjoong signaled with his head toward their share bedroom door. And they were so close in between the hugging measure that Seonghwa could easily count the lashes on his lids, the pointy cute little curve of his nose, or the tiny mole on his neck. Or the-

Seonghwa blinked his eyes out of the thought, o _h my God Seonghwa, you are so gay for this._

And while Hongjoong didn't notice the intense staring, he nudged him again, "Hmm? Come in, I mean, we are married now, I don't think it would get any worse with us being on the same bed this time."

Seonghwa unintelligently snorted at him, "And what is this character development, Kim Hongjoong-ssi?" making the latter rolled his eyes.

"Aren't you tired of sleeping on the sofa? I might be blunt, but I'm not an asshole. Besides, I think you really need a good sleep. Even after your shower, you still kinda look like shit."

_Wow, such a nice husband he had._

_And not over three seconds ago, he said he isn't an asshole._

Seonghwa kinda-sorta said those thoughts out loud.

And now it was Hongjoong's turn to snort. The sound went embarrassingly ugly, but the blue hair man just blatantly ignored it and managed to drag the tiring man next to him into their room together. Hongjoong let the man lying there while walking out to retrieve the pillow and blanket on the couch, untouched ever since last night, throwing them right on Seonghwa's face when the other was unprepared. He laughed.

Seonghwa wanted to be a nagger over it. But instead, he just silently took and settled them before smiled a thank you.

It was seven in the evening. Clearly too early to sleep, but Hongjoong denied any protest, turning off the light the moment Seonghwa laid on the left side of the bed properly before he followed, scooting his smaller frame onto the right side of the bed, his back faced Seonghwa's.

They slept contently throughout the night. Seonghwa hadn't gotten this great of sleep ever since last month when he got first place for their monthly abilities evaluation test.

And Seonghwa was thankful for that. He needed it.

The next morning, though. Seonghwa found himself tangled with a smaller figure's soft hair beneath his chin by waking up early than expected. 

It was six in the morning, and while the latter was still oblivious and dead from his surroundings, Seonghwa got to see his clueless, out-of-the-world sleeping face, with his pouty lips and blue hair gently covered his forehead. Seonghwa felt the need to venture it all and to plant a kiss on his blue bangs. 

He didn't, though.

But he did scoot in and laying there, head nudged in closer to the figure below him, feeling back to being vigorous from his healing of magic and overwhelming at the same time. 

It was a good type of overwhelming.

And he actually enjoyed it.

* * *

Hongjoong woke up to the smell of grilled beef and kimchi jjigae.

With his back turning while flipping the juicy pieces of meat from the stove, Seonghwa looked fresh and much healthier than yesterday.

And that did something to Hongjoong's weak heart: Park Seonghwa, dressing in a black shirt and black jean, with his newly bought cream color apron while his arms rolled up, dirty blonde hair gingerly settled all over his face, looking a bit soaked.

Did he just shower again? Not that Hongjoong complained, but he noticed the latter always looked much more intoxicating when he just came out of the bathroom.

And the tightness from the apron, though. Waist? Absolutely snatched.

Hongjoong didn't even notice the loud gulp that he made.

All he had was the ridiculous loose tied-dye shirt and the boxer beneath. Not even once in his life that he would ever think he was underdressed in his own house. Yet right at this moment, the thought hit embarrassingly hard.

But then Seonghwa turned around and surprised seeing Hongjoong there. He seemed taken back with Hongjoong's appearance, awkwardly holding on the cooking pan with chopsticks, on the other hand, looking at him up and down.

Wait, hold the fuck up.

Did Seonghwa just check him out?

Yup, Hongjoong was totally not noticing Seonghwa's dark gaze gaped at his thighs subtly. Totally. 

Before the man could say anything, though, that was Hongjoong's cue to move, so he rushed to the counter and scooped the rice from the rice cooker, the fog waved through the air as he reached for the chopsticks and spoons, settled them all down on the bar table connecting the kitchen and the living room.

Before he could even get to set his ass down, Seonghwa gave him a look as he put down the nicely arranged food bowls and plates on the counter. The taller man gave out a cough to snap his attention, hinting a bit at his words, "do you, uhm, do you ever have any enemies?"

"Huh?" appreciating the kind gesture from Seonghwa's politeness, the blue-haired man didn't give two cents about the conversation. Let him eat his breakfast first. So ignoring if Seonghwa felt offended over him eating the food before him. That was clearly the latter's loss. He was starving here.

Munching on the beef, Hongjoong looked at him again, "what do you mean 'enemies'?"

Seonghwa untied the apron and folded it conscientiously before putting it back into one of the kitchen counters, answered back, "you know, those people you hate. You can't just get cursed out of the blue, I mean. Can't you recall one single person?"

Oh, so he was talking about the cursed marks. Hongjoong genuinely thought he would have to figure out who did that to him all by himself. He was glad that the latter did take some interest.

"I don't think I enjoy making people's lives a living hell if that what you are wondering." Seonghwa awkwardly winced at the joke, "I don't, no, I don't think I ever hate anybody. But definitely not guarantee that others might not hate me." He shrugged, proceeded to eat his food.

Great, this seemed to make the task a little harder.

They were back to square one.

* * *

That night, Seonghwa and Hongjoong knocked on Wooyoung and Yeosang's dorm, (which they all were actually living in dorms to keep the authentic-ness, so apparently, only the oldest members in their little group were the one who lived in an apartment.) Having Wooyoung jumped up instantly to huge Hongjoong, whom he had not seen ever since the cursing marks incident, Hongjoong frightened, nearly tumbled back into Seonghwa, who was walking behind him.

Touching the latter up and down and earning a giggle from the blue hair from the excessive tickles, Hongjoong tried his best to push the loud sobbing voice that was almost squished him into a sunken orange skin before he walked inside the flat, still having the black hair boy wrapping around him.

"I kinda missed you, idiot. What have you done this time?"

Seonghwa laughed, instantly got a stare from his husband.

"How am I the idiot when I'm the victim? This is not how you treat your hyung, rascal." Wooyoung pouted at him but finally pushing the poor man away.

Hongjoong surprised he hadn't choked to death already.

Wooyoung stared at the both of them now, no longer having that whinny face but a dangerous emotion flashed vividly in his eyes, he asked, "What happened? Jongho told us what he knew, but I need to hear it from you guys."

Hongjoong felt bad for worried his friend so much, they were friends since middle school, and it was a lifetime for him. While growing up, they were with him all the time, have been dealing in blood and fresh with him for such a long time. Sometimes he even joked to them that their bonds felt like a blood pact. Only that Yeosang had been Wooyoung's bestest best friend ever since kindergarten. But the three of them always have each others' back. And in whatever situations, he could still put trust in them. He hoped they didn't stress themselves out too much hearing his incident. That would make him such a bad hyung.

Slowly walking toward the couch in the room, Hongjoong heaved out a sigh, "I don't know, I was showering, and the next moment I could recall was pain and ugly lines like animal craws with dark runes ground on my skin. I passed out before I could even see what it said." Seonghwa nodded along, continued the story.

"I heard his scream, so I barged in and found him lying there, so I called Jongho. You already knew what happened after." His voice hindered, not really wanted to tell about their meet-up with the dark wizard. Besides, he already promised the man not to tell. Hongjoong was quick, so as fast as he caught up on the words, he stayed silent. Though he had to give credit to the older, Seonghwa's face was as stiff as a statue.

Wooyoung seemed to buy the words, nodded in understanding while a freshly showered Yeosang just got out from the bathroom.

"Oh, hyung, you guys are both here."

But before Yeosang even got to speak the next sentence, Seonghwa talked, cutting him off, "Yeosang, can you do us a favor?"

Yeosang surprised at the words, before furrowed his brows, staring at his friends confusingly, "Sure. How can I help you?" 

"Could you help us tracking down the one who put the curse on Hongjoong?"

All of them, including Hongjoong, were staring at him like Seonghwa just grew nine tails on his back. The blue hair man stuttered, his eyes did not leave the other man for one bit, "Y-you...So this is the reason why we are here?"

"I...I mean sure, if you have any bit of evidence where the curse came from, I can-" Yeosang's voice sounded strained. He was indeed in shock with the request, "-I can even track that fucker's whole entire ancestor down if you will." A very dark intimidated aura surrounded him that even Wooyoung and Hongjoong have to gulp behind Seonghwa nervously, who was now standing up, walking toward Yeosang.

"Lovely, I put my trust in you, Yeosang," he mumbled, patting on the latter's shoulder before shoveled a small piece of paper into the light blonde's mullet wizard's hand, then calmly walked back to his husband.

Hongjoong did not know what the fuck was going on.

If Yeosang's face looked strained, the moment he checked what was inside the small white paper, having Wooyoung tried to peak from afar but failed because of their distance gap, Yeosang's face contorted in a pained expression, mouth gasped before he weirdly met Seonghwa's eyes again, appeared to share with the other some secret passage. Not that Wooyoung and Hongjoong caught up with anything, the two sat silently on the couch, looking like newly bought lost puppies.

Yeosang blinked, looking away from Seonghwa after two minutes of silence before shuffling the paper into his sweatpants pocket, walking toward them to finally hug Hongjoong.

"How are you now, hyung?"

That was weird.

That was very weird.

That was incredibly weird.

Hongjoong stared at everyone with his eyes as wide as Bambi, but still proceeded to hug Yeosang back as if nothing happened. But what the hell did Seonghwa keep him away from? 

And what was he planning? 

And why wasn't he telling him? 

Hongjoong's curiosity was eating him up alive, swallowed him down like a giant squid upon munching tiny mackerels. He really wanted to know. But Seonghwa's expression clearly told him that he wouldn't know until the man ready to spill them out himself.

So amidst the fishy atmosphere surrounding them, Hongjoong stayed quite. Instead, he observed Seonghwa all night, carefully looking for any sign of confession before his impatience burst off, sending him straight to his own grave.

But he soon gave up later, Seonghwa's mouth was like a deep-sea breathing mussel: opened when necessary, and closed when needed.

It drove Hongjoong insane. And they left the place sometimes later with Hongjoong stumbled in his own confusion.

That led to his pouty scene in front of his husband, whining about the strange looks that Seonghwa shared earlier with Yeosang. His friend had never been that angry, and Hongjoong didn't have to be a smartass to know it was definitely about him and the curse marks. But he didn't know what kind of juicy news was being inscribed inside that little paper.

He was clearly the victim here. And he felt like maybe Seonghwa was started to act like his best friends, considerate and attentive.

As if he really cared about Hongjoong.

As if he Seonghwa was ready to slaughter every spectacle of dust in the atmosphere just for Hongjoong to breathe in the pure fresh air. As if he would smash the culprit's skull into shatter like how Yeosang would definitely do once he tracked down the unlucky guy. Except it would be more wicked and more unmerciful.

Because he was Park Seonghwa, the youngest son of the most powerful house in the entire nation.

And maybe Hongjoong had gone crazy. But that actually sounded hot.

* * *

The training sessions went quickly, day by day as Seonghwa and Hongjoong started to get used to each other roles, weaknesses, strong points, and, most importantly, trust.

The couple sometimes would visit their classes, emailed their professors for the lessons notes to the cramped them all inside their hectic brains, trying to catch up with both things in one frame. Seonghwa seemed to be alright with the pace, but he still looked out for Hongjoong, asking the man if he needed to catch up with anything since he had already taken a few of his courses the previous semester. 

And while Hongjoong smiled at him in a thankful gesture, he still shook his head and continued to work on his reports and essays, studying through nights of exams while getting ready for a load of energy he had to spend the next morning training.

It was stressful. But it was manageable.

The school seemed to take notices of their activities and schedules that a week before their competition, the young couple received a letter from the school.

It was in two days before Christmas. 

Supposedly they just got to the end of the fall semester last week, and Hongjoong really thought that it was finally his time to have a break. But the content beneath the letter seemed to shake the young man up, making him loudly yelped as he ran inside their share bedroom, waking up a sleepy Seonghwa who was in the middle of his afternoon nap.

"W-what-" murmured Seonghwa through his haze, Hongjoong cheered at him.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Seonghwa! Check this out!" before shoving a red envelope into the latter's hand.

Seonghwa briefly stared at the eggshell color inside the envelope, sleeping head poking out in directions as he read aloud the content before he widened his eyes, staring back at Hongjoong in hysteria.

> _"Dear Mr. Park and Mr. Kim,_
> 
> _It has been capturing our attention that the most proficient and qualified students of our school are going to attend the most expected competition among all ages in the wizardy community. And I, along with everyone else, am very proud of every achievement you both have brought upon our names. It is a great deal to be chosen in the great Wizardious International Tournament. I cannot help but feel gratified and appreciate all of your contributions to the campus and to the school pride. Furthermore, I am thankful for your participation in every campus contest has been upheld since the beginning of your journals. It was a great honor to have you guys as a part of the Wizard University of Spirit Cetacean, and I treasure every moment of it. Hence, knowing that the two of you might have to suspend your critical education path to attend this prestigious event, which I am concerned would be delayed for at least a year until your return._
> 
> _I have talked to the administration and the school offices. We all came to the conclusion that both you, Park Seonghwa and Kim Hongjoong, will receive the full credits included for both of the Winter and Spring semesters of the year 2021 as long as you pass our finals test to determine your position in the wizard community. And yes, you're correct. Once you pass this test, both of you will be officially graduated from the University. You may discuss the graduation ceremony with me if there is any concern, but I will push them back for you until your rearrival. But for now, a diploma should be good enough for us to not holding you back, right? I hope you will agree with our finalization._
> 
> _The test will begin on December 30th, 2020, it will be a combat between you two and two other graduated students, who I shall remind, were also top students a few years back. I hope you guys are well prepared for this. And knowing that this is a piece of sudden news for you two, I fully aware that you both have been trained for the tournament. So just think this as a practice round. But do your best. I have high expectations!_
> 
> _I wish you both the best luck!_
> 
> _Sincerely,_
> 
> _Kim Seokjin_
> 
> _Principle of the Wizard University of Spirit Cetacean."_

"Holy shit," gasped Seonghwa, whose voice was still thick through the sudden awakeness, "Is this for real?"

"Dude, you tell me!" Hongjoong yelped back, looking as excited as the latter, the adrenaline continually rose up and down, and he recited the letter repeatedly.

"I can't believe it, we are fucking graduating," whispered Seonghwa, who had now flopped back into the bed, Hongjoong followed suit.

"And here I am, seriously thinking that I would have to suffer through two more semesters after we get back from the competition." cried Hongjoong. And then they laid by side-to-side before staring into each other's eyes. It went on for ten seconds before they cracked up at the same time, laughing in content.

"Best! Christmas! Gift! Ever!" screamed Hongjoong, while Seonghwa clutched his stomach in pain, face looking like someone just punched into his balls, but Hongjoong learned to know it was his laughing face as much as how hilarious he appeared.

"I love this," Seonghwa grinned before he got up, strolled toward the closet on the right of the bed, "let's have some steak tonight, my treat." Making an exciting look, Hongjoong glanced up, before he rose out of bed, powerfully marching toward the bathroom.

"Fuck yeah!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ALSO, HOLY SHIT GOOD LIL BOY SLAPPED SO HARD I AM ACTUALLY ADDICTED HELP I LOVE THIS COMEBACK!!!


	3. Electrocute

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> disclaimer: i am horrible with fighting scenes 😭
> 
> but the effort counts right? i mean, i tried to spice it up :,)
> 
> also i kinda f around with latin google translate nim and add random -ous, -ia, -llingo, etc. behind spell words bc:  
> 1\. fuck jk rowling  
> 2\. its not even close to hogwarts setting  
> 3\. it was fun making weird words up 😂  
> so below is the list for all the spells that would be used in this au.
> 
> i will include this same list on the next chapter! (personally speaking i prefer the next chapter more tbh)
> 
> No beta-read btw 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!!

**Spells List:**

igniso - fireball spell

imberious - rainfall spell

brasto tremorous - to cause an instant earthquake

exarmaurous - disarming spell

praesidium - protection

circumfusus praesidium - circle ball surrounded protection

congellingo - freezing spell

displodimus -bursting spell

ebullious - meteor blasting spell

fulminate maxium - maxium explosion spell

medeis comedomus (dark magic) - magic consuming spell

mimirous - to fall asleep spell

fumenas - thunderbolt spell

inpulsas - shocking/striking spell

conflollingo - blow object into flame

vortaxia - tornado spell

gelumous - iceball spell

fulgoringunt - blinding spell

extra note:

  * 5 school ranks: neophyte, freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior.

  * once you're graduated, based on your status, you will become either an acolyte, an elite, or a master sorcerer.

  * people who are much weaker than the given class statues will become castaways.

  * the dark side of magic would be wicked spellcasters, who have been rumors as wizards who illegally abused dark magic for their own purpose, including people who were naturally born to use dark magic. most people wouldn’t live for so long with this magic running in their blood if they forcibly used it. but those who are natural-born can be living along with it since their bodies are immune.




* * *

Sometimes, life was full of surprises.

Even though understanding that Principle Kim had explained that they would have their final test against the announced top students of the University a few years back. Seonghwa did not expect them to witness freaking Kim Taehyung and Park Jimin in one frame, especially in front of them. Exactly right at this moment.

He could hear Wooyoung, San, and Yeosang's screams from a far distance.

According to Hongjoong, who nervously gritted his teeth next to his husband as he saw the two men stepped closer to them, explaining the little TMI of that day that did, in fact, sounded mind-blowing to Seonghwa. The boys were fanboying from the closest section the arena could arrange, and the blonde hair wizard doubted that his friends were here to support them anymore. Not when the moment those wizards walked up into the ring. He could feel the sharp starry eyes darted straight from the other side of the arena.

The tree branches have switched, ridiculously, as Seonghwa cited.

Wooyoung had been a huge fan of his seniors when Park Jimin was still a part of the honorable lineup. And Hongjoong stretched that, mouth still whispering on the left of his shoulder, Wooyoung cried the whole night when the two wizards in front of them couldn't get the WIT trophy that year. And it took the will of two grown men to drag the poor ravenette wizard out of the grumbles in his bunk of sadness and disappointment.

Park Jimin was the literal definition of a role model for Jung Wooyoung. And Seonghwa was pretty sure he had heard that sometimes before even without Hongjoong's quick TMI session.

Talking about the WIT: Park Jimin and Kim Taehyung were the school's elected members to attend the competition three years ago. And much to their discouragement, which Seonghwa truly admired and gave credits for, (these two were talented wizards). The freshman Seonghwa, a few years back, was quite frustrated upon hearing the news they could only get the third place in the tournament. 

But then, truth to be told, the WIT was not something to be taken lightly for, and Seonghwa felt thankful for this opportunity of them going against their seniors.

As cocky as it sounded, Seonghwa couldn't wait to show them what he got. 

The moment sunshine-smile Park Jimin walked up and shook Seonghwa's hand, Hongjoong tensely stared at the grip between their holds. Though neither Hongjoong and Seonghwa would likely goof around with their seniors, the tension was definitely vivid. A lump of hypersensitivity was eating from the inside of Hongjoong's brain.

As Kim Taehyung shook hands with Hongjoong, the blue hair man unconsciously gripped his staff tighter. This interaction was too intense for his liking.

"Park Seonghwa, I've been heard a lot about you." Jimin smiled at the man, "even when I was still in WUSC, you were already the talk of the town. Nice to meet you here." 

It was known that both of him and Park Jimin were born in the same house. Yet, each house established many different branches as sub-houses under the same name. So even though Park Seonghwa's family was currently the head of the entire ancestry under the title, Park Jimin was also one of the powerful wizards in the lineage. And it riled something up in Seonghwa knowing that despite that they shared no blood connection, he was about to fight against someone under his name line.

He was ready for this.

Confidence is one key to success.

If only Hongjoong could get a grip of himself.

Hongjoong may or may not felt so well after shaking hands with Kim Taehyung for some reason, and knowing that the same goes for the Parks, Hongjoong and his senior were also under the corresponding family line. The _Kims_. It had always been an impressive background to be shared with every wizard known inside the community.

The Kims are famous at using explosive, painful, and energy-consuming spells. It was something worth bragging for since the establishment that most Kims tended to have a bigger magic vessel than many other houses. And that means while other magic users would have trouble applying such forceful spells for offensive purposes, the Kims would have no problem.

It was undoubtedly an eye for an eye.

Because for a fact, Kim Taehyung was excellent at using explosive spells. Compared to Hongjoong, who could damage the public properties in an eye blink, which wasn't ideal when fighting on a battlefield. He was famous for his powerful magic, sure, Hongjoong loved to show-off, but Kim Taehyung could do near combat. 

And the only thing Kim Hongjoong cannot do was to fight in near combat.

At this rate, Hongjoong felt dissimilar to being at a disadvantage, with Seonghwa had to be the shield all by himself, the anxiety and dizziness would slowly eat him up alive. The blue hair wizard pleaded with all his mind that they would be able to surpass their seniors.

Kim Taehyung was smiling at him, encouraged him to do his best.

But Hongjoong couldn't seem to snap himself out of his own thoughts.

The gentle touch, on his other hand, though, was the reason to pull him back. Hongjoong jotted up slightly, surprised by the sudden confrontation from his husband. Seonghwa wrapped his hand against the other palm, stroking it in assurance, and nodded with as if knowing what the blue hair man was thinking. He silently reminded him that it would be alright. And maybe such heartening display did something to his heart, Hongjoong tended to ignore the matter a little too far as long as he doesn't say anything.

A little coo screeched in between them.

"Oh my God, Taehyungie, why are they so cute??"

Park Jimin staring at them in wonder, almost as if he could walk up and squish Hongjoong's shy cheeks the moment the young couple snapped out of their zone.

Taehyung breathed amusingly, also looking at the little interaction between the two, giving a smug look. "Well, well, I still remember seeing our little Hongjoongie in some of our family meetings ever since he was a kid. I can't believe he is already married. Time is an illusion, I tell you that Jiminie."

The administration tended to change the rules once in a while when necessary. Three years ago, there was no such thing as "the requirement to attend the WIT is to be with a partner, which demanded, is your lawful spouse" bullshit because he could drag a cow into the ring and Seonghwa would still be allowed to attend this damned competition. 

And then two years ago, the administration announced that the competition had finally being concluded as individual participation. Thinking with such an innocent thought, Seonghwa could have known better. All he had to do was train for this contest by himself, and he was comfortable with what he had. His father was deadset, believing just by Seonghwa, the first place would be theirs. The blonde wizard took his pride into that, being the first place was all ever on his head. The family had settled their trust in him.

So what confused Seonghwa the most, was the abrupt rules changing a few months before the tournament began. He would never live this down, and even if he turned into an eighty-year-old hag, he demanded an answer.

Because who the _fuck_ made this rule?

Jimin's laugh echoed through the arena, a pure giggle from the deep interest underneath his tone, and as much as adorable as it sounded, Hongjoong felt the need to step on his foot.

Right, arranged marriage had never been an option for them.

They didn't have to go through the same thing he did.

Please, don't take him wrong, Hongjoong admired his seniors, but this. 

Call him a hot-headed, but Hongjoong could go and take a breather right now. It could be a joke if he tried to laugh, but no, he didn't think he would. But understandingly, it wouldn't be smart to snap at their seniors no matter how much the thought tempted him. So he held himself back.

Only then it hit him again.

They were about to fight against the WIT _ex-contestants_. 

WIT ex-contestants, let Hongjoong highlight that.

As much as he would likely take the honor, it was challenging. It felt intimidating for a fiery spark that he could bury himself deep in the sea and would be better than getting into this mayhem.

There were doubts and insecurities. And others may not know, but Hongjoong sometimes did have doubts and insecurities. Maybe too many of them at a time.

Though, rather than being baloney and avoiding his responsibility, he decided to face this challenge anyhow. Running wouldn't be a handsome decision, genuinely speaking. So he gladly didn't diminish his sense of understanding that he was trained for months. Principle Kim wouldn't like a quitter, would he?

Plus, this was their goddamn final.

He really wanted to graduate.

He _ought_ to.

So composing his panicking posture that he almost had the nerve to hide away the peaking eyes, Hongjoong fixed his cloak as if nothing happened.

There shouldn't be any time to think the moment you were on a battlefield; it was a universal rule.

It was common sense.

Ignoring Taehyung's innocent statement, Hongjoong's intense trademark eye-gaze lingered on his face when their seniors dropped the marrying joke, with Seonghwa looking even more vicious and wild than him the moment the words flew out of Taehyung's lips. It seemed like Seonghwa was more offended than Hongjoong for some reason.

Knowingly, it was a joke. But there was supposedly a limitation.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong did not have any choice over this marriage for their mighty titles as members of requisite households.

They were holding hands, but they looked like they have went nuts.

Taehyung may or may not have riled something up from the bottom of their chests.

And as climactic as it seemed, Taehyung raised his eyebrows and licked his lips, sharing the same glitch of playfulness with his partner, smiling wickedly at the other two.

"Oho, check them out, Jimin. This fight is going to be _good_." Earning a mischievous smile from Jimin.

"Damn right, it will."

* * *

The rule was simple. As long as the losing team shot out a white illuminated light, the match would end immediately.

As the first gong rang from Professor Kim Namjoon's mallet, the entire audience stands inside the school competition arena went stiff. Couples of held breathings could be heard if the place was eerily set as such, though the massive tension traveled between the two couples under the ring set up a more compact, stifling atmosphere.

And while Hongjoong had already set his distance far away from the three others, he hoped that Seonghwa would be able to stand his ground between the two powerful sorcerers.

It was Park-Kim against another Park-Kim.

They have all day for this.

The first movement caught up by Taehyung, as he pulled out his midnight blue pistol, shooting out an ' _igniso'_ a dark blue fireball reached near the center split of the stage before it was encountered with Seonghwa's ' _imberious_ ' flew out gradually from the tip of his white fan. The instant collapse of fire and water nearly sparkled up close to Seonghwa's position, but he jumped away and blocked another spell from Jimin. 

Hongjoong harshly stabbed his staff into the ground.

"Brasto Tremorous!"

The ground tremblingly shook as Taehyung lost his balance, and while he stepped a few steps back for composure, Seonghwa swung an instant ' _exarmaurous_.' Still, Jimin quickly snapped out his white dancing silk ribbon, using a shield spell to block out Seonghwa's attempt to disarm the latter's weapon as he spun in the air.

"Praesidium!"

"Thank, Jimin." Taehyung grinned as Jimin rolled his eyes, "You're welcome, idiot."

He proceeded to shoot another bullet from his gun after regaining his balance, "Congellingo!" this time, aiming straight at Hongjoong. The blue hair wizard widened his eyes, dodging the frozen spell from the latter before he spun his staff in circulation three times. The ruby head pointed straight at Jimin and Taehyung before he bent his knee and shot out ' _displodimus,'_ causing a massive hole on the ground.

Jimin widened his eyes in shock straight at the huge hole Hongjoong just made right in between the two ex-contestants, "Holy shit!"

Hongjoong grinned brightly at them, as in actually laughing, his _audacity_ , thought Seonghwa.

That was quite impressive.

"Seems like you guys have to try harder." the blue hair wizard provoked them, making their seniors blanked out of the remark as they snapped their head back into the fight.

Hongjoong - 1 

Confidence - 100

* * *

It took over half an hour for Taehyung to shoot his surrender light, exhaling out defeatedly.

As Seonghwa countered Taehyung's ' _ebullious_ ' with his power to harden his fan through their back and forth, the reflected spell shot straight back to Taehyung, making the man frightened over the speed, he didn't get to block it in time before the explosion bloom right in his face. Jimin managed to use his silk band and wrapped it around Taehyung in a guarding shield, using his healing magic to prevent his partner from injury. Yet right the moment the inferno spell burst into dust from the healing shelter, Jimin couldn't retract his weapon back in time.

Hongjoong whipped out another ' _brasto tremorous_ ,' making both of them lose their stands before Seonghwa swung his fan and yelled ' _exarmaurous.'_

Jimin's silk band instantly flew out of his hand, got pushed back by the air into the outline mark outside of the ring. Now that one person's weapon was being disarmed, Taehyung recovered quickly after the healing, instantly shooting out his own ' _exarmaurous'_ towards Hongjoong's staff, hoping it would knock off before Seonghwa blocked them in time. He didn't make it far, though. 

Hongjoong's speeded through the arena. This time ran up to the latter as he threw the staff into the air while dodging the bullet with his fast-reflex, behind was Seonghwa, who calmly swung his fan up as a shield once again, the bullet spell burst straight into the hardened fan, useless.

Hongjoong withdrew his staff safely back into his palm.

Upon seeing his comrade stood still on the side hopelessly, Taehyung had no choice but to blast his light toward the ceiling, causing the whole arena to scream in glees and congratulations.

Hongjoong stopped all of his moment in dumbfounded, staring around as the people around him screaming and yelling and applauding and stirring and-

They won.

They fucking won the fight.

Oh, my _God_.

All of his friends have been jumping out from the barricade, running toward the ring to hug him and Seonghwa, and his husband stared at him gently, mouth mumbling a small " _good jobs_ " before his friends surrounded him as they threw him up in the air.

They won.

Principle Kim Seokjin happily walked into the ring while applauding, smiling gently at his students' performance, looking right at Hongjoong after the wizard was put down by his friends. "Hongjoong, you were amazing there, you too, Seonghwa." as he turned to the latter. "I had a blast watching you guys, and I must be admitting that you both would bring that cup back to us this year. That was a very enjoyable fight." as he patted on each of their shoulders, Hongjoong and Seonghwa managed to give a quick bow before the man leaving the stage, a few school staff and professors followed up.

Jimin and Taehyung then walked at them after their recoveries; cheerful shook their hands again, "Wow guys, that was a show. I didn't think the fight would take us this long. Especially you Seonghwa, your aim is no joke, and you have an intensively scary reflex, too. Bloody hell, all those dodges. I was really amazed by your skill. I understand now why everybody would talk about you." Jimin beamed, causing an awkward head scratch from Seonghwa, he shyly thanked the man and bowed, Jimin just laughed at his action before hugging him, proudly announced, "now now, if you guys don't get that trophy this year, the competition is rigged."

Taehyung snickered, "Indeed, I couldn't wait to see you guys on the screen. Both of you were insanely good. I have to say much better than us-"Hongjoong gawked at the senior in horrid, "-Hongjoong, don't look at me like that, you know _you_ are good." The blue hair man still couldn't stop his staring. "It was exciting fighting with you guys, I have to say, I learned a few things from you guys, too. Next time I will have to throw my pistol up in the air to dodge a disarming charm. Absolutely creative. That was very hot." he kidded, making Hongjoong laughed.

Joking asides, though, the senior expression shifted the moment he stepped closer to them. His face stilled for a bit before he bit his lips, looking a bit nervous, "Although we can't promise anything about the competition because all the game rounds changed every year, but remember to believe in yourself, and trust each other. You guys will rock this." He tapped their shoulders in assurance once last time before leaving the arena, Jimin followed up with a cheerful wave at the young couple, jogging along with Taehyung's footsteps before they both went beyond their sight.

So to summarize this, according to Hongjoong:

They just finished their final.

They were going to graduate.

And the WIT was starting in four days.

While feeling absolutely terrifying, Taehyung's advice didn't give him much assurance nor self-boosting even though the latter was a contestant three years back. Hongjoong was, definitely notifying for his expression, drowned in indistinct suffocation before he gathered himself and caught his head out from self-distressing. His stomach twisted uncomfortably.

_Stop overthinking Hongjoong._

_It will be fine._

He could do this.

And despite having the harsh push of nausea and nervousness on the pit of his stomach, staring at Seonghwa was somewhat calming and resurrected.

Right, there was nothing to be afraid about,

He still had Seonghwa.

* * *

Their friend group had planned to celebrate their triumph final test that night. And while the sun hadn't set back into its orange hue of the night yet, the eight wizards cheeringly walking on the campus path towards the karaoke room that stayed a few blocks away. 

Though their movements halted before they even reached out of the school gates, noticing one specific shadow jogging slowly back into its dorm. It was familiar, he knew, still, Hongjoong didn't see who it was until the man walked up approximately ten feet away from the group. 

He had his hoodie on, and the thick layer covered his sunken frame with dark tiring eyes bore onto the ground. He probably wouldn't notice the group passing by his shoulder without Mingi spoke up in a teasing voice, 

"Hey, Freshman dude!" snapping the boy's attention away from the rocks on the street.

The dark, heavy eyes looked up and glancing at the eight wizards standing noiseless there until his eyes landed on Hongjoong. He stuttered quietly as if the blue-haired man had just grown three heads and took a step back.

"Y-you, you are still-" he shakenly pointed at Hongjoong, face pale in an instant.

Hongjoong looked at his finger while pointing to himself, confused while staring around at his friends, who gave the same reaction.

"Me?"

The boy hoodie now fallen off, revealed his thick black hair as he frightened, full-speed running away from the group like he had seen a ghost for the first time. And while everyone else was puzzled under the weird reaction from the young freshman, who was known as the kid that was always asking Hongjoong out the beginning of the year, Seonghwa furrowed his eyes suspiciously.

He carefully checked over his friends, only to notice a hardened expression on Yeosang's face. It seemed like something was bugging him. 

Or maybe Yeosang knew about something.

San broke the silence, looking back at the direction where the boy had run off, "That was weird, he hadn't shown up on the campus ever since the little brokedown he had from the center-hall when the whole school knew about your marriage. Now he's running for his life as if he thought you are dead." the junior chuckled, then shaking his head and pushed his friends up to continue walking. It was getting darker.

Seonghwa could hear the faint chortle from Yeosang, as the man sighed and whispered, "Oh, the irony of it all."

And Seonghwa's brows, may or may not, had furrowed much further after hearing those words.

Admittedly, many strange things have happened these months.

* * *

The competition had been decided to withheld at the main magical arena, inside the dimension of the Glutterhook division, a hidden area away from the actual human vision to protect the wizard community, among others. Same goes with the Wizard University of Spirit Oceanian; many places existed in the Earth that was still beyond the average human being's knowledge. And every day, the administration would be appreciative of that, because the moment if wizards were being discovered, all hell would break loose. 

The dimension of the Glutterhook division in human's eyes and awareness was located in Tromsø, Norway. Each sorcerer would have to move in between the down of mountains until they reach a cave, and open the dimension through the Rune of Recludo. By opening the gates, the sorcerer was committed to entering another aspect that passed through space and time.

It was to be at all peace with oneself.

Glutterhook was a safe place for all wizards, despite the different ranks of ages and knowledge.

And Hongjoong couldn't recall the last time he was here, but the similarity that suddenly inundated him the moment he stepped his feet inside the cave was all too familiar.

Despite the forceful gush of wind brewing through his blue bangs, Hongjoong felt that greatness of warmth submerged into him, cradled him through the thick layer of his winter coat.

He missed this feeling. He missed being in this place.

The arena wasn't the highlight of the town. But the people, the settings, and the magical elements floating around him were the things that made this world seemed mysterious and fascinating that words could never describe his fondness for it.

Seonghwa appeared to share the same thought. The man gently stroke a fairy's head as she flew into his palm, waving her hands before settled her bright, sparkling wings back into the sky. The baby goblins ran around the pathways while chasing one another with a stick. From afar, flocks of phoenix could be found on the top of the lux tree palms. The snow suspended in the air when spirits flung their magic and morphed the coldness into soft sparkling bubbles. Stores of wonders opened on both sides of the street.

Everything was magical. 

There was also one more thing that Hongjoong expected.

Aurora.

The place that went against the norms of space and time, where Auroras were steadily brightening up the darkness of shining stars, they have always been in the trust of entertainment in Hongjoong's eyes. And though at the moment, it was a dim morning for their wish to see the beautiful stripes of lights, Hongjoong couldn't wait for the night to come.

He loved Auroras.

Seonghwa seemed to notice that the latter kept staring up at the gloomy sky ever since they got inside Glutterhook, and he found it charming. 

Hongjoong looked beautiful when he was happy.

* * *

Hongjoong and Seonghwa went to sign up for their participation inside the Hall of Clash before bringing their valise, backpack, and cases inside the given room from the building assigned by the administration.

It was a vast room with a glass wall as a block of the balcony, where they can stare at the whole Glutterhook in one focus angle. The color scheme of the town was prettily reflected upon their levels, and Hongjoong opened his mouth in amusement as he wrapped his hands onto his face, carefully peaking his head down from the glass distanced between him and the outside world.

It was humongous.

The expansion from beneath the building stretched out to the faraway lake, hindering the tall hills, and the peak of the horizon beyond them created harmony between all creations. And Hongjoong couldn't seem to take his eyes away from the view. 

But the gazing had come to a stop when he heard the shower turning in the bathroom side, which was next to the giant master bed between the whole reservation.

Seonghwa must have showering while he was drooling over the scenery in front of him. Hongjoong was glad that he did pack his canvases and color palettes, along with his paintbrushes. He had to paint them down.

He must

The day ended quickly after, with Hongjoong feeling more sensitive and nervous, with mind clothing between the tension of participating the WIT and the sudden worries of what would come upon their destiny among facing other competitors.

Tomorrow would be a mystery. And Hongjoong needed to be prepared to know what would be ahead of their future. 

They started pending their time outside of their resting place after Hongjoong figured out there was a Korean restaurant from two streets behind their giant building. And Seonghwa followed his lead with the guide from the GPS, walking their whole process there to eat their last meal before the tournament.

* * *

"Hongjoong-ah, I can hear your thought from here." The blue-haired man whipped his head up, staring at his husband in confusion as he was chewing on his food, Seonghwa was cutting the pork belly into small pieces from the griller. The sizzling sounds engraved the whole table with smoke blurringly puffed up into the air.

The blonde hair wizard sighed, gently set the meat grabber down, and put a slice of pork into Hongjoong's bowl. "Stop over-thinking."

Hongjoong pouted, food still full in his mouth, puffing out his cheeks like a squirrel munching acorns, "I can't help it. I don't know how and why you are so calm about it. But four months ago, I didn't expect myself to join the WIT. Like, _at all_." He chewed on the meat aggressively and pointed at Seonghwa with the metal chopsticks as if accusing him. Not that Seonghwa did anything, but Hongjoong just wanted to point chopsticks onto his face. Then he grabbed the pork that Seonghwa put in his bowl earlier, angrily stuffing it inside his full mouth.

Seonghwa really wanted to laugh at the man's antics.

"But that doesn't mean you should stress-eating like I've been starving you for years, Hongjoong-ah." Seonghwa tried again. This time, Hongjoong did stop. His hand suspended in between the grill and the bowl, widening his eyes at the latter.

"Shit, how much have I eaten?" earning an actual laugh from his husband. "Like six servings of samgyeopsal so far," answered Seonghwa as he grabbed another pork slide and put it inside Hongjoong's bowl.

"Six servings?!" screeched Hongjoong, "why didn't you stop me?! I'm not supposed to eat this heavy the day before a competition!" But he still proceeded to put that pork slide into his mouth.

"I mean, three servings ago? I wouldn't mind. I think you need this feast more than me," huffed Seonghwa, "but now I do kinda regretted it."

Hongjoong groaned, staring that the juicy pork on the grill still sizzlingly popped in between the oil layer surrounded them, looking as tempting as the moment he walked inside the restaurant. He grabbed one slide up again, pointed it at Seonghwa, and then popped it inside his mouth. "If I become a pig tomorrow and mess up, you are taking responsibility for it."

Seonghwa shook his head in defeat, grinning at the man before him.

They returned an hour later that day. It was 11 PM by the time Hongjoong finished taking his shower, and Seonghwa had to wash his hair. _Again_.

He forgot how much smoke would likely to stuck on hair after a BBQ session.

They have to wake up at seven tomorrow, bringing their necessities and materials inside the arena for their one-year stay during the competition. The stadium was designed in an infinite distance approximation, which means the field will be endlessly long and wide. However, each couple of contestants will be led into a white room of their own. They would have to remain there until the winners announced. This rule allowed a secured eye-watching upon all contestants away from any outside magic source to prevent future defrauding and dishonest behaviors.

It was to be understood that any extrovert would seriously hate this place, contenders were not allowed to leave their rooms unless it was a competing round. So by a sense, they were trapped. But the upside of being stuck in this hectic place was: while there were rooms with all the needed matters inside, competitors were still allowed to use their electronic devices. And Hongjoong thanked God for that because he couldn't stand at the thought of not using his phone for one day. He didn't mind being held here as long as he could use his stuff.

Plus, there was unlimited free food inside the massive fridge each room possessed. Hongjoong couldn't say no to that.

Every nation must have competitors with the magic rank level 5, commonly known as the elite level, and only 1% in the whole world had such consuming and abundant energy to train themselves up into the highest college literacy level, the master level. They must have a check-up with the physicians to validate if they are certified to participate in the competition. _And right_ , along with the stupid rule that you must be a legally married couple to attend.

Although the stable set-up had been established every year the WIT happened, Seonghwa still hated it to the core; this was a plan to set up a small-scale Darwinism, along with the administration's almighty titles. It was relentless that they have to attack other sorcerers with any allowed harmful spells but the deathly ones. Yet, that was verbalized as crude as it resembled to be. There were 50 nations in total that could participate in this competition, and they were qualified to attend. People would love this rigged competition for the exposure to news and rewards they would later receive.

Like a bunch of starving, pathetic weasels that desperately begged for little exposure of fame.

And while Seonghwa loved to be faithful to his family. He felt very, _very_ sick in the stomach.

But everything had been settled. And Hongjoong was here with him.

It was too late to step back now.

So he had to deal with it.

He told Hongjoong not to overthink. But it seemed like he was the one who overthought himself.

It had been an hour since the minute they have been cuddling on the bed, Seonghwa still couldn't seem to fall asleep while the blue hair beside him had stumbled deeply into his slumber.

Heaving a distant sigh, the blonde hair wizard turned his body toward Hongjoong, gently put on a kiss on the latter's forehead, hoping he wouldn't stir awake as he pushed his head into him, locking the smaller body into his embrace.

Hongjoong unconsciously snuggled himself into the other's chest.

Seonghwa closed his eyes as a final signal of peace, praying with all his mind that everything would flow in a convinced route. And even though chances existed that they wouldn't be able to make it to the first place, he begged with all his heart that neither of them would get hurt at the end of the day.

Be it physically and mentally.

And so he prayed.

* * *

The tournament began.

Ten in the morning, a hundred contestants lined up in the arena, standing by their representative country flags proudly as the head administrator of Glutterhook walked around the stage, along with other officers in the administration. A few clan leaders of some houses that represented the match showed up on the upper layer of the arena, observing all of the contenders.

Seonghwa spotted his and Hongjoong's fathers by the far corner of the audience's seats, watching them both on the above floor. 

The couple decided to dress up in modernized hanboks, display their tradition and initial resembles while having their revived convenience designs for moving in actions. They were simple, but deeply engulfed with the country symbol, and Hongjoong hoped that all of the wizards who watched them from their mother country would be proud of their participation. And as such weighty words he swore, Hongjoong would do his best.

After all of their greetings and ceremony for the competition, each wizard couple was transported into an individual room. The monitors on top of the ceilings carefully recorded every movement from each sorcerer as they listened to the clear announced voices from the central speakers announcing the rules. Despite Seonghwa's understanding of the written guides in the back of his hand, Hongjoong still attentively listened to the announcer lady's words, trying to understand every information given before the first round began.

Round 1:

The first randomized battling round. Until the heard of the bell resounded through the whole arena, the four-wall will break, revealing every participant exposed to one another. And while trying to keep yourself from being enchanted, you must also keep your partner safe. Any contestant between a couple received such hex or spell from their opponents, the team would be eliminated instantly and sent back to their room. If both members could stay safe until the end of the given time, they will be set up for the second round.

It was a test of reflex.

The thing was,...there were magic mines called Frames Modifiers in this round. If an unlucky guy stepped on it accidentally, the whole scenery in the arena would change into a random surrounding. And while the waste been done, the guy himself would get injured from the explosiveness. Frames Modifiers have been trapped one every six feet on the ground, and usually, wizards could use the revealing spell to detect the click traps without sparing a sweat.

Yet, not even two minutes after the walls had broken down, the surroundings changed from blocks of barriers into the center of a jungle; apparently, an idiot joined the competition, and Hongjoong groaned at this stupidity.

And out of every setting existed, it had to be a goddamn _jungle_. 

How the fuck would he be able to fight when there were trees everywhere to walk by, he could be burning the whole arena down at this rate if it didn't change back soon, Hongjoong frustratedly ruffled his head, carefully walking on the soiled ground. At the same time, Seonghwa fanned on the ground to reveal where all of the mines stood.

They were everywhere.

And it would be a considerable disadvantage the moment other teams found where they at. The only one who could fight in this critical situation was Seonghwa, and Hongjoong felt guilty for being useless at the moment, but they couldn't do much about it. Seonghwa once again reassured him, leading on while Hongjoong followed in the back. And the other continuously fanning on the ground to show little clickers exposed on the soft soil, mildly walking in precise movement.

Multi-tasking always had its limitation. Seonghwa could do so much at a time, but he wasn't born a God, so one moment, the man was fanning on the ground, the other second, he raised his hand in a defending posture, staring around little sounds that the jungle made once in a while. It was stressing him out.

But Hongjoong softly tapped on his shoulder, urged him to move, "I will be okay," the blue-haired gently pushed, "If there's anything I will alert you, just make sure we don't step on those mines."

Seonghwa felt unwavering in a quick measure, nodding as he continued on the path, enchanting the ground for more bombs to unveil. It stayed for a while until a loud boom was heard from the right side, clearly blowing up by someone stepped on the mine, _another unlucky guy_ , Hongjoong shook his head, waiting for the scenery to change.

This time, the arena slowly immersed the trees into the ground, and soon after, a seamless desert of dust displayed on their sights. And one moment when they couldn't detect anything from huge junks of colossal plants blocking their views, the moment the greenery was no longer barring the location of other contesters, Seonghwa instantly lifted his hand in protection. There were five teams surrounded them, and the couple widened their eyes, staring at the other groups, who also shared the same look. 

"Exarmaurous!" Hongjoong reacted as fast as he could, swung his staff at a random couple before her green blades flew out of her hands, swiftly sunken into the dried yellow sands. 

Another team caught up to his spell and raised their bow onto his staff, wanting to knock it off. But Seonghwa was already prepared. He froze his fan into the magical consuming metal before throwing it horizontally. The fan flew in a boomerang motion as it touched the arrow before the purple arrow vanished into dust. Hongjoong spun around immediately, "exarmaurous!" their bow swung out from their aim, dropped into the sand. The other woman from the same group fiercely pulled her sword out, swinging two sharp thunder cracks from the tip of her yellow weapon, Hongjoong slammed his staff into the ground, calling upon his earthquake spell.

And while everyone lost their balance, Seonghwa shot out a shield, blocking the coming attacks before lowered his guard, letting Hongjoong performed his last spell.

"Exarmaurous!" The lady's sword flew up into the air before hopelessly falling into the dust.

After a rough fight with Hongjoong stood in the center, disarming other teams' weapons while Seonghwa danced around, preventing any outside danger, they were one. Somehow, as Seonghwa observed, the moment they worked harmonically, everything just seemed to flow into the upper hand. The five teams surrendered alarmingly after withholding the couple's performance. Seonghwa silently chuckled at their attacking techniques.

Why would they decide to five v. one them when they knew who the team they shouldn't be attacked were? Was it because Seonghwa and Hongjoong in the middle? Seonghwa's eyebrows twitched at the disappointing arrangement from each group.

Until the last man confronting them retracted his hand away, asking for mercy and accidentally stepped on the mine, a strong force blasted him up into the air before he felt down limply. Hongjoong stared at the view in shock.

Luckily, the explosion wouldn't be too damaging for the healers to come and help them, but it wouldn't be a nice feeling to get yourself injured. 

It never be.

He hoped anyone who got hurt in this tournament would safely return to the ward without any further dangerous wound. 

Despite being worn out after the first round of the tournament, Hongjoong was glad that they didn't get any harm. And most importantly, they passed the first level.

Thirty-two couples passed round one that day.

* * *

Ruffing his head after a shower with his towel, Seonghwa walked into the bedroom, he picked up his phone, checking through if he received any messages before seeing a new notification popped green on the top of his receiver.

**Hehet Child:**

we've watched your performance today

never knew I would tell you this,

but you did great, hyung. 

hongjoong-hyung, too.

**Mama Bird:**

Wow, thanks for the rare compliment.

Especially from you

**Hehet Child:**

yw, uwu

btw hyung.

**Mama Bird:**

?

* * *

Hongjoong was lying on the bed, checking through his laptop, eyes focusing on the monitor before he heaved out a tired yawn. Until he closed the screen, putting it on the nightstand on the right side before flopping into the soft mattress, stretching out lazily.

Seonghwa chuckled at the tiring sight, "I will get us something to eat," earning a soft "yes please" from the blue-haired man.

The blonde hair wizard walked toward the fridge.

* * *

**Hehet Child:**

about the paper that you gave me last time, 

I think I know who cast that

dark spell on Hongjoong-hyung now.

Also, your drawing sucks.

**Mama Bird:**

I drew the runes exactly like how

it was shown on his arm, 

You, my dear child of a devil,

I refuse to let you roast me.

**Hehet Child:**

too late, I am roasting you.

anyways, I've been searching for this spellcaster,

and at first, I suspected it was the freshman stalker boi

**Mama Bird:**

Figured.

**Hehet Child:**

but as a perfectionist, as I always am, 

just to be sure you know, I dug a bit further 

on this sus dude profile

and what surprised me was that he 

has never been using dark magic

but somehow was associated with it

my eyes are seething

I am suspecting

hmmm

hmmmmm

hmmmmmmmmmm

but yeah, that all I found out, so what and how

are you going to deal with him?

Just fyi, I do free assassinating service.

especially for hongjoong-hyung.

....

uwu

**Mama Bird:**

Yeosang...

You're terrifying.

**Hehet Child:**

*flips hair*

yes, wbk

yw btw

**Mama Bird:**

....Well, I think

maybe once the competition ends, just 

keep this secret away from everyone.

Until our returns, let Hongjoong decides

what to do with the kid after.

Thank you for your hard work.

.....

UwU

**Hehet Child:**

see? I told Wooyoung you're a husband material.

A win for us,

alright, hf with hongjoong-hyung

stay safe, stay calm, and show 

us everything in the second round!!

we all missed you guys

Also, rmb to wear protection!!!

gtg bye~

**Mama Bird:**

SHUT-

* * *

Seonghwa composed himself with two awkward coughs after shoving his phone back into his pocket as he opened the metal fridge, checking to see what inside.

Typically, the food inside the refrigerator would be sent from the contestants' families and friends. The moment he opened the big massive door of the cooler box, Seonghwa spot countless snacks and yogurts arranged neatly on the top bunk of the fridge. Dear _God_ , Hongjoong would scream all of his life to live in this cramped room forever. Seonghwa shook his head in bewilderment,

"Hongjoong-ah, what do you want? Just say a random dish, fruit, or snack. Anything." he yelled from the tiny bounded kitchen.

"Uh..." the voice echoed from the man who still buried himself deep into the blanket, voice muffled beneath the thick fabrics. "I don't know. Do we have any strawberry yogurt?"

 _Bingo_.

"Yes, we do. Lots of them." Seonghwa responded, grasped the yogurt on the top bunk of the fridge before closing it, then grabbed a spoon inside a counter, and walked back to his bed. He knew that Hongjoong would think of it as the first thing. Sometimes, the latter was so easy to read.

Hongjoong cheerfully got up from his bed as he accepted the yogurt, mumbled a small "thank you" before opened the cap, and scooped the soft texture into his mouth.

The blue-haired wizard breathlessly moaned upon the sweet taste of strawberry engulfing his mouth's coven, shuddering in happiness. And Seonghwa weirdly stared at him like he just lost his mind.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Hongjoong glanced up at him confusedly. This time, scooped the yogurt back onto his lips and sucked on the metal spoon. His eyes were wide opened, looking like a motherfucking innocent he was. Seonghwa was about to breakdown.

So he coughed unintelligently, once again, and walked toward the latter only to harshly ruffed on the blue-haired wizard's lock. "Damn it, Kim Hongjoong." before embarrassingly stumbled away, maybe to hide inside the fridge or something.

"What was that for?!" yelled Hongjoong while remaining on the bed. Pouting at the taller's unnatural behavior, the man proceeded to shrug and continued on his strawberry yogurt.

"What a weirdo, acting as if he's on his second day of period." he mumbled.

* * *

The one month gap for every round was a real pain in the ass.

Hongjoong would rather have his ass being beaten up every day than having to wait until the fourth day of the month to begin a new match.

It wasn't that he was ungrateful for more practicing times, but come on now. He had nothing else to do. Sucking on the strawberry popsicle as he stared into nothingness while on his bed, Hongjoong felt like a tree branch decoration in a zoo, sitting still and being useless.

"-nghwa," he looked at the man sluggishly, mouth still holding on the pink popsicle.

"What?" The man eyes glued to his phone, looking like he was watching a drama. Hongjoong could tell just by the smile he had on his lips.

Oh, at such times, those sentimental moments.

"Woanna watsh somesthin wihh mey?"

"What?" Seonghwa stared at him confusingly, making Hongjoong tsk-ed, so he took the sweet out with a little 'pop' and asked again,

"I said do you wanna watch something with me?"

"Uh...sure?"

"What with that hesitation?"

Seonghwa stilled, not knowing what to say. Can Hongjoong read the room? He was obviously in the middle of his drama right now.

Not saying out-loud, though, the blue-haired man still knew his husband must be grumbling about him from the inside out.

He sighed dramatically.

"I can't believe it, I've been married to an asshole. And here, I am kindly asking for a little favor. Oh, the struggles, the unfairness. Oh! The boundaries engraved between our cross-path! Oh, such faithful husband I have put my trust on. Just to be turned the back around and rolling me down into this endless dark hole of-"

"Hongjoong, what the fuck?" Seonghwa stared at him in bewilderment, clearly flustered over the hilarious and out of the blue Shakespeare speech from the shorter man. Hongjoong must be bored to the point of madness.

"-oh! now he does not want to listen to I pleads, heart has been broke so many times I am-" 

"Oh my God, Hongjoong, by Yeomra's throne, I'm coming just shut up." Seonghwa turned off his phone and stood up from the chair that he was sitting immediately. Looking embarrassing at his husband's tantrum.

And here he was, lamented to himself that: _Oh! He rather being an asshole than missing one second of his favorite drama._

Besides, Hongjoong looked like he didn't want to ask Seonghwa to watch a drama with him. So it was either dealt and suffered from the later's antic or be a real asshole. He was kind enough to choose the first option.

Who knows how many times he groaned that day, but Seonghwa managed to go through a whole movie marathon with his husband. Funny enough, Hongjoong dropped dead to the world once the third movie of Harry Potter ended, while Seonghwa still immersed himself through all seven movies, with tired eyes and messy hair, all that good stuff. 

Hongjoong was a smart, reasonable man. 

But there were times he behaved like those baby goblins blowing bubbles on the street. And despite that the behaviors seemed too childish for his age, Seonghwa somewhat admired his carefree lifestyle. He wished he could somehow still possessed those characteristics, yet, he changed his mind for thinking in such ways.

Maybe it was how it was. It wasn't mandatory to act like a grown-up all the time though Seonghwa's title had always been ahead of him. And that was why Seonghwa invariably had to take extra steps upon himself when he was in a life decision.

In this case, it was more of a trademark for Hongjoong, to be lighthearted and childish among his surroundings. And that what made him unique as a being. 

And Seonghwa was glad to have someone like Hongjoong in his life even if it was bothersome sometimes.

It was a great balance.

Gently carrying the sleeping man from the couch back to the bed, Seonghwa left a kiss on the forehead before turning off the light and settling along inside the blanket.

He had been doing such intimidated action while Hongjoong was sleeping. 

And despite the dangerous growl on his head every time he snapped his sense back, Seonghwa just couldn't stop doing it.

It was addictive for some reason.

* * *

Round 2: 

The stage had been reformed into an actual fighting arena with a giant ring in the center of a vast, boundless white platform.

It was a duet this time. Anticipating, Hongjoong was curious about their opponents. Hongjoong and Seonghwa have talked a few days advanced about their opinions by reading their rivals' profiles.

The hard thing was, you can study a person's background. But you can't know what they were, who they were in the heart, and how they would act in front of people.

So far, there weren't much to concern about, knowing that it was a young couple like them with high statuses in their community, Hongjoong was reminding himself to take more caution before stepping onstage. Besides that, though, nothing was extended in needing extra worries. They could pass this round in a heartbeat.

But the encounter wasn't as pleasant as Hongjoong thought.

Sure, it was known that simple friendships and instant sympathy don't happen in a day or two. Many times it would end a lifetime to be-friended with those with bad intentions.

And there some people who were hard to approach.

Cocky people.

Hongjoong desperately _hated_ cocky people.

Maybe even with the capital H.

He had shaken himself up before the fight a moment ago. Yet, another moment, a vulgar feeling of stunk eye-stares poked through the layer of his hanbok overwhelmingly, shoving him around like a rug-doll for thrift store decoration as he stepped on stage.

As if he wasn't supposed to be on this platform. Or even in this competition to begin with, and it made him sick.

The couple before him didn't even consider his abilities but checking through the listed information in his profile.

Under the section of 'Training Assigned Date:' were the words 'Three months ago.' And they have no clue who he was, but a proof to make a way, moreover, looking down at him. While hesitated beyond Seonghwa's appearance as the man followed him into the ring from behind.

How ridiculous.

Hongjoong felt the need to spit into their faces, fuck his title.

But Seonghwa always managed to hold him back in time. The man gently held on his wrist and reminded him with a small whiff of breath, "You can wreck them once the bell rings, behave," before releasing it, earning a growl from Hongjoong.

"I know, but wait first." Seonghwa rolled his eyes.

Hongjoong gave out a huff with arms crossed on his chest before he looked at the couple again, returning the stink-eyes.

The girl on the rival team twitched her eyes upon his retorted, furrowed her brows.

Right, Hongjoong might not be the proudest wizard ever existed, but he was a wizard with the largest audacity. So stunk eyes couple can eat it up to their asses and leave.

Every two couples would be inside the ring for easy distribution of monitoring. And while there were sixteen rooms in total for this round, Hongjoong and Seonghwa's arena was in the last section of the endless white wall. Along with two others, of course.

Not that Hongjoong was excluded them.

The fight began the moment the announcement stopped echoing through the unseeable ceilings of hanging speakers. And Hongjoong revealed his staff from behind his back carefully, watching all-eyes on his opponents.

These two were so fucking dead.

And Seonghwa portrayed as if he knew what would happen, slowing walking to the front as the shield, absolutely unbothered.

"I didn't know the Kim son would be a fucking coward." the girl looked at them, laughing in a high resonant pitch and rose her umbrella up, "Standing like a damsel in distress while his husband takes all of the damages." Then struck a fireball toward Hongjoong's direction.

Great, it seemed like she wished to be closed with her deathbed in this instant.

Hoongjoong would give her just that.

"Gelumous!" Hongjoong swung the staff in the motion of a baseball bat, encountered the fireball while Seonghwa blocked the shatters with his fan, moving out of the center a few steps to the left. But the guy from their rival team ran up and shot a ' _fulgoringunt_ ' near Seonghwa's eyesight, making the blonde wizard stepped back in dazzle. This time, the girl ran up a victory smirk in her lips before she shot out the disarming spell from the tip of her red umbrella.

"Seonghwa!" Hongjoong panic yelled before shooting out a shield before the disarming spell hit his husband's fan away. He might not be a shielding master like Seonghwa, but he was good enough. Yet, despite the instant recovering, the mere second was putting him in between a one v. two situations. And Hongjoong bit his lips angrily, adjusted himself before his two opponents. 

He would make sure these two regret every single decision they made in life.

* * *

The second round ended with the wall crumbled down in the last room of the white arena. And every audience on the stands gasped out loud at the massive explosion on the floor.

Viewers wouldn't be able to observe the fight on the eye-to-eye with the invisible white walls that locked each duo inside to prevent internal damages. So the only way to know what was currently happening was to watch each team fought through the giant monitor on the ceiling.

This was the reason why the administration designed the arena in this way.

One wall crashed with a golden light struck through the solid, and a body shot out from the inside of the room before painfully hit on the hard protection glass on the wall, fell, and lying limblessly.

Hongjoong whipped his thunderbolt straight into her chest, swung the young wizard out of the ring, a burnt umbrella in hand.

To say he wasn't internally laughing was a lie.

Talk shit, get hit.

And while the girl's lifeless body was there, he let the poor man from their team take more time to gain back the little dignity that they have.

Hongjoong let the man run up to him, swinging out his katana harmlessly with a fire spell, the bright red flew along the way with the man speed in such forceful but useless and painfully slow motion. Hongjoong chuckled out of his way with a small hit from his staff, shouted ' _remittura_ ,' returned the spell to its owner.

The man tripped over, unable to dodge the heat from the spell that he did not predict to counter back to him before knocked down on the ground

Pathetic.

But in the end, Hongjoong and Seonghwa won.

Hongjoong was the one who mostly fought on this round, Seonghwa was there, just for the requirement. And if everyone else didn't know the participants of this tournament, they would mistake Seonghwa as a street-passer. 

Because he was just there,

Calmly watching the whole fight without bugging an eye, he was just there.

Maybe dodged a few spells flying towards him, and that was it.

And maybe when he let the rival team blinded him earlier when the match started, Hongjoong assumed it was on purpose. There was no way Seonghwa wouldn't be able to dodge a simple spell. Especially not from these two hopeless rags.

Hongjoong acknowledged what his intention was, and he was thankful. Seonghwa knew when and where he should put his hands in when it came to critic situations.

Most of the time, he enjoyed the show, letting the blue-haired man freely crashed through and tossed the rival couple in constant attacks.

It was a particular sight.

And it made Hongjoong fluttered deep inside.

Because Seonghwa cared about his feeling,

And trust him to decide on what he should be doing while they were together.

Hongjoong was glad to know they were together at this hectic timing.

Seonghwa seemed to please him in many ways ever since he stepped inside Hongjoong's little life, and it thumped something in his chest.

Be it fiercely or tenderly.

Sixteen teams passed that round.

* * *

"You know, hyung. I almost threw my phone away when I heard that bitch talked."

Hongjoong laughed at his friend's remark. 

"I'm glad I wasn't the only one," he responded, checking through the fridge for something to eat. Wooyoung was calling him two days after the fight. He forgot to charge his phone yesterday, and on the night of the battle, he might have fallen asleep on the sofa, not knowing how and when he got back into his bed.

Hongjoong's body went rugged that night.

Although he possessed all the ability against more than a few people who cannot overpass his power, Hongjoong was still dead tired. He felt drained, but happy that day.

Some asses were beaten.

Indeed was the peak of comedy, if you ask him.

Today was the day he finally appeared less like death after some long-term hibernation for the longspun twenty-eight hours to regain his strength. Hongjoong felt better than always.

And currently most likely sneaking through some snacks on inside the fridge while Seonghwa was in the shower. The latter's mother-side had been feeding him with all the greeny stuff that the blue-haired wizard almost puke at sight, with his sorry excuse of "you have to eat to regain your energy" every moment Hongjoong wanted to spit out the food.

No, thank you. Hongjoong preferred his chips.

So he grabbed the Lay's onion and ranch bag before settling down on the white couch opposite their bed, munching on them happily. "How are you guys, by the way?"

"Pretty good, I mean, what else would be nice? The spring semester is here. Oh my God, I can't believe I'm going to be a college senior after this semester, we are getting older now."

Snorted Hongjoong, "old? If you are old, I am a hag!" Before stuffing a handful of chips into his mouth, "And I'm not even including Seonghwa," chewing them crunchily.

"Of course you are a hag. You even acted like a hag sometimes, nagging us up and down, as if you didn't mess up your spoiled food potion and accidentally added in love potion into Yunho's fruit bowl. He kicked Mingi in the face to go out and kissed a dog!" Wooyoung wheezed through the phone call, earning a huff from the older man. 

"It was a mistake! Both potions were burgundy how was I supposed to know!" He defended, grabbing more chips onto his palm. 

"Sure, sure. Whatever you say." Wooyoung sang-song, the older wizard, could hear Yeosang's chuckle in the back.

"Hey! Most of the time, I nagged in goodwill. At least I didn't put a fucking ginger onto professor Shin's lunchbox four years ago and let him gave us a ten-page essay about ginger poisons in a nutshell the night followed. I have my reason to nag." He furrowed his brows.

"I'm sorry!" Wooyoung yelped, "That was a one-time thing! I was a neophyte. You can't blame me for that?!" 

"Yes, I can, sir. You were seventeen."

"Hyung!" the younger man whined, "and I was a big idiot, okay? Can we stop bringing this up every time you want to argue with me?"

"I will if you stop being an ass." 

"Fine," grumbled Wooyoung on the other side of the call.

"Good." laughed Hongjoong. His friends were so easy to tease.

They talked for some more and ended the call with Wooyoung made a fake kissing sound through the phone, Hongjoong pretended to gag. Then he proceeded to enjoy his snack after the call ended.

Before he even got to pick up another grab of the chip into his mouth, though, Seonghwa walked out from the shower, drying his hair as he closed the door.

 _Fuck_.

Hongjoong panicked, threw the bag of chips behind the couch, hid his evidence, and showed his most innocent facade while sitting on the cushions.

He silently hoped that none were spilled beneath the sofa; it would be such a waste. And he would sob over a bag of chips if you ask.

Seonghwa looked at the stiffed figure in front of him, raising his eyebrows, "what are you doing?"

"N-nothing." 

"Then why do you look so nervous?"

"W-what? Me? No? What are you talking about?" Hongjoong awkwardly laughed, "I'm fine."

Seonghwa looked around his husband, stepping closer to the man before he scoffed, "Hongjoong! I told you not to eat any junk food while you're recovering."

Hongjoong stared at the latter in bewilderment, before confusingly questioned, "H-how did you know?"

But then he looked down at his fingers.

Damn it, Hongjoong was a big idiot in great timing.

There were crumbs everywhere on the tips of his fingers.

Seonghwa stared at his big, widening posture before sighing tiredly, walking closer and ruffed the latter hair in another tangled mess. Then marched to the kitchen, leaving the other flustered in embarrassment.

Seonghwa had been doing that a lot lately.

Not that Hongjoong would confess that he didn't mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope this is slow burn. . .
> 
> . . .is it slow-burn?
> 
> does it seems slow-burn to you? 😭
> 
> i’m so bad with this arghhh


	4. Guardian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK SCREAMING!!! I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST!!!! PLEASE TYSM FOR ALL OF YOUR WISHES ILYSM
> 
> and I said I would post the Thursday after my driving test ended but Jesus I literally took 17 units this semester so I'm legit dying rn and it's only the first-day return ;-; so I spent literally all day trying my best to finish this last chapter.
> 
> also, I lied ik I lied, I said 20k words but I'm too tired for that so it's only 10k.
> 
> also no, as usual 😭 no proofread
> 
> WARNING: description of injury, blood, violence! please read with caution or you can just click out!!!
> 
> I hope u have fun!!!

**Spells List:**

igniso - fireball spell

imberious - rainfall spell

brasto tremorous - to cause an instant earthquake

exarmaurous - disarming spell

praesidium - protection

circumfusus praesidium - circle ball surrounded protection

congellingo - freezing spell

displodimus -bursting spell

ebullious - meteor blasting spell

fulminate maxium - maxium explosion spell

medeis comedomus (dark magic) - magic consuming spell

mimirous - to fall asleep spell

fumenas - thunderbolt spell

inpulsas - shocking/striking spell

conflollingo - blow object into flame

vortaxia - tornado spell

gelumous - iceball spell

fulgoringunt - blinding spell

extra note:

  * 5 school ranks: neophyte, freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior.

  * once you're graduated, based on your status, you will become either an acolyte, an elite, or a master sorcerer.

  * people who are much weaker than the given class statues will become castaways.

  * the dark side of magic would be wicked spellcasters, who have been rumors as wizards who illegally abused dark magic for their own purpose, including people who were naturally born to use dark magic. most people wouldn’t live for so long with this magic running in their blood if they forcibly used it. but those who are natural-born can be living along with it since their bodies are immune.




* * *

Round 3: 

The criticality for this specific level seemed much less constricted and difficult compared to the other rounds. At least in Hongjoong's opinion.

There weren't many norms required but a common understanding of obeying them and being truthful throughout the competition. It was a hide-and-seek sort of scenario, and teammates would receive a flag in their bases to protect while sending the other partner out to hunt down their enemies' flags. In this case, Hongjoong volunteered to stay.

It was a settled round, knowing that the blonde hair man had all the capabilities to step out from their group and being the absolute of professionalism in performing his magic. And even if Hongjoong could do the same, he doubted that he would be ideal in close-measure battles.

So he left the whole job to his husband and carefully guarding the little white flag in the middle of a bright yellow circle. Hoping for the taller man to return after the first bell rang through the arena.

The setting had changed for this specific round: Where they will be engaging in the battles amidst the rain forest, and the bonus was them having the chance to hide behind the crookery humid caverns of greens and rocks. Hongjoong decided to step his feet beneath the small dark cave close to his standing before the white flag behind his back, lit up a small light inside the small area with the top of the staff, the red ruby.

The bright pink light helped Hongjoong scan around for any strange objectives before he turned it off with another swung, settled down on the wet soil, and waited for the other's return while alertly watching the white flag in the middle of the circle feet away from him. It went completely silently for almost half an hour, and the nervousness from waiting started to kick in. The blue-haired man licked his lips, feeling impatience with the time ticking by but perceiving no end of Seonghwa's department.

 _What took him so long?_ Hongjoong worriedly mumbled, 

There hadn't one single person approached his flag, and as much as knowing that it was a good thing to not dealing with any outburst of battles for the instant, Hongjoong still felt somewhat unsettled. Plus, the latter had not gone back after the flip of the hourglass in his pocket.

He wished there was some sort of communicating devices between so at least he could know if Seonghwa had successfully stolen the other teams' flag or not.

But there was none.

Hongjoong bit his lips for a moment and started humming, guardingly staring at the trees surrounded him until he heard a branch snapped, making the man whipped his head towards the sound, squinting his eyes in alertness. Someone was hiding but failed to keep quiet.

And maybe not noticing that Hongjoong was also hiding beneath the cave, because he pushed himself up in a ready position, yet, the strange person had not guarded themselves but blindingly approached the flag without confronting in a prepared stance.

The strange man wondered why the flag was being abandoned without a guard until he, if a little bit more, was being brave and stepped closer to the yellow circle, almost reaching the little white flag.

And that was when Hongjoong stepped in.

The blue-haired wizard swung his staff toward the flag with his protection spell, creating a golden shield around it as he stepped out, noticing that the opponent was the only one who got to his place.

His opponent immediately stepped back from the shield, rose their weapon toward him, and shot a quick spell that rumbled his stood, Hongjoong raised his eyebrows.

Interesting, an explosive spells user.

Just like him.

The only question was, who would withhold this longer. Hongjoong couldn't wait to see that.

He held his staff high, then stabbed it into the ground, formed a crack on the soil earth, splitting between the other wizard and Hongjoong, along with the white flag. The gap between them was distant enough for him to perform on without injuring himself, and he walked to the front, challenging the other man to approach him.

Hongjoong spent some time defending his flag until he caught the bell chimed from the speakers that attached on top of the ceilings, recalled them that the round had ended.

Four hours have been spent. And Seonghwa hadn't back.

Usually, when the competitors manage to pass the round, they would be sent to the gate, leading them toward the main stage of the arena. It was a form of announcing their positions, those who passed. Thus, showing the contestants that got sent back to the white rooms: Those who have failed the competition.

Though Hongjoong's team was considered as a passing since he managed to keep his flag intact, Seonghwa was not at sight even for the moment he stepped on the stage. 

So Hongjoong stared around the stage confusingly.

_Where did he go?_

There were thirteen teams passed the third round.

Correction, twelve teams, _and_ Hongjoong.

And not just him, but Hongjoong could sense the uneasiness from the audiences watching the competition on the top bunk of the stadium.

But the mumblings from the audiences got louder after a few minutes. Hongjoong wondered where the ruckus came from that had frightened everyone so much. The blue-haired man turned around to witness Seonghwa carried a man on his shoulders, looking grim and unreadable. The blonde hair man walked toward the section where all of the healers were sitting. 

While the man was completely normal, the person on his back wasn't, with a dark burn crawling on his face as he laid lifelessly on Seonghwa's back, questioning the whole arena of what had occurred. Hongjoong felt uneasy since the marks on the injured man's face were reminding him of something. They were familiar.

He had seen them before.

Seonghwa carefully settled the poor man on a stretcher in the small infirmary where they all stood before whispering something to a young lady who instantly rushed to his place, Hongjoong assumed it was the head healer. And the man walked back, marching toward where Hongjoong was with that same undecided expression, rilling so many questions from the shorter man.

What just had happened?

But before he even got to ask what occurred, Seonghwa held his hands tightly, checking him around as if to see if he got injured right onstage. Hongjoong couldn't even utter a word out of embarrassment but squeezed the latter's hands to assure that he was alright. Safe and sound.

The taller man quietly nodded, still holding on his hands throughout the administrator's announcement.

But his eyes weren't on Hongjoong. They were on someone else.

Watching in the blinded pit of space like an eagle.

Like he saw something he shouldn't see.

But his hawked eyes did not stop him from overlooking it.

* * *

That night, all of their friends were all at Jongho's dorm, face-timing the couple through the small phone screen as congratulations for the passing round.

Hongjoong thanked them while Seonghwa was in the kitchen. 

They were joking around with the couple about how "the parents took their honeymoon for too long," earning a scoff from Hongjoong. And Mingi from out of nowhere snuck some brewskies inside the youngest dorm. Making them all cheered with his "presents."

Wooyoung poked at Hongjoong for not being with them, blepped his tongue, and the blue-haired man laughed. 

"I can call the building security right at this moment, Wooyoung-ah. I have a thing called a phone." The ravenette looked at him like a lost puppy, and San whipped his head so fast, the crack could be heard through their call.

Hongjoong laughed harder.

They talked for a few more minutes until Seonghwa brought up their dinner to the coffee table and sat on the sofa, telling Hongjoong to move from his bed. The latter complied. Before Hongjoong got to end the call, though, Yeosang spoke up from the other line.

"Hongjoong-hyung. Also, Seonghwa-hyung." Alerting the couple, "I don't care if you guys are going to make it or not. But please stay safe. No matter what." And he ended the call himself, cutting off the wondered disturbing noises from his friends. Hongjoong stared at the black screen dumbfoundedly, then looked at the blonde hair wizard. But Seonghwa was looking at somewhere else, lost in his thought.

"Hey, is everything alright?" The blue-haired sat beside him, sinking his small frame into the white sofa.

"Huh?" Seonghwa snapped back, "oh, yeah, sure. I'm fine."

"You sure? You've been out of it since earlier."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I was just wondering something," the latter reassured, then pushed the rice bowl toward his husband.

Hongjoong didn't buy it, but he didn't press on, either.

"If you say so."

* * *

Round 4: 

There were rumors.

Every nine years, this round would be a part of the tournament. There were many unfortunate stories about the contestants who have encountered this level and ended up with severe damages that most likely cost their entire lives for its price.

And even though the previous head administration had once banned it so many years ago, the new chairman decided to bring it up for the spice of this year tournament.

Nobody knew what to expect since not a single survived wizard had ever returned to tell the true story for this specific round. But rumors existed.

Many of them, even.

It was the Maze of Forgetfulness.

There had been words passing around about how dangerous this level had been. And those who unluckily participated in this tournament must pray for their _lives_ to not ever meet such a little but vital creature inside the Maze of Forgetfulness.

There were a few _special_ things about this round.

Nobody would take the competitors back to their rooms until the given times ended, and the requirement to pass this round would be to escape the maze before the limited time rolled off. And perhaps it sounded simple; something prevented it from being 'simple.'

In this case, a spider.

It looked like a spider, or that was what he recalled when his father talked about those who had encountered it many years back, even when his father was still in college. And Hongjoong was curious about how it resembled, so he got to see a rough draft from his father's friend, one of the past WIT competitors. 

Though, that man couldn't even remember his own mother sometimes after the tournament ended.

So it wasn't a perfect illustration of a spider.

And that was what the rumors about; a spider that ate memories.

Something that Hongjoong would not fancy over to tell. Not even a few years after.

The Maze of Forgetfulness was always covered in a thick layer of fog. And without any proper source of light or path-finder spells, it was predictably hard to look for a way out. Once you step in, with those who obtained serious bad-lucks, you would be stuck inside the maze for as long as it could be, and nobody liked that.

Hongjoong didn't like that.

And as he discussed. Rumors.

There have been rumors about those stuck inside the maze; if they were in it for too long, they would likely lose every single memory withheld inside their brains. Someone had even lost the ability to speak after staying inside the maze for over seven hours. They got carried into the infirmary as if they were an infant, scared, and lost. Under that range, Hongjoong swore this little spider must have fed up into a full-grown, fat, and evil little shit.

He groaned while staring at the smoky maze with the wet molded smell of woods that giving out from the setting that awfully reminded him of Maze Runner—not wanting to move an inch from where he stood.

The rules of escaping the maze solely were solving for the given riddles with every step they made. And the faster as they could solve them, the sooner they could get out of the maze. As long as they took the time to handle each question, the spider would be there to remind them why they must take this round seriously.

Because nobody liked to have their brains eaten to the point of being a ragdoll, do they?

_Exactly._

So Hongjoong shuddered from the thought and nervously stepped inside the maze with Seonghwa behind him.

He betted with all of his books that their friends would make fun of them sometimes after with the fact that they were holding hands. But under this thick ass humidity fog? No, thank you. He still wanted to live and see the light.

So he held on the blonde hair wizard's tighter.

It would be hard to find a way out if the first thing that was going to happen was both of them losing each other.

And he noticed the other man also held on his hand tight. It seemed like neither of them would like to have their brains being food for some crazy, sinister, and wicked spider today. Or whatever it looked as.

Seonghwa checked around, seeing if there were anything written on the walls as they made several turns once stepping inside the foggy maze, with Hongjoong looked down on the ground to see if there were traps or secret pathways to lead them toward an answer. 

Until they stepped a few steps toward an end-point of a wall, a small paper revealed out by the tree branch inside the maze, asking them the little riddle to solve, Seonghwa stood and read it over while Hongjoong checked around to see if there were hints around them, the pink light from his staff slightly shined the area. 

"What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?" Seonghwa mumbled the question. 

"What is so fragile?" Hongjoong looked at him, "Glass? Do you think the answer is glass? I mean, glass is fragile, and saying maybe metaphorically means by screaming? When you scream high and loud like that one-time Jongho did with Mingi's favorite cup and it actually broke?" 

"That makes sense, I guess, but we only get one chance. If we answer it wrong, we will have to go to another path. And you know what it will be, we will have to stay here longer."

"Ugh," Hongjoong groaned, "What else could it be? Paper? Feather? Rosebud? Those things don't break!" He ruffled his hair, "what could be that fragile to be broken just by saying its name?"

Seonghwa hummed.

Then they both went quiet, thinking of the answer as they read the riddle over and over.

Hongjoong wanted to say something, but held himself back with the "Ah!" distilled the air for a moment before he huffed, making Seonghwa widened his eyes.

"Wait, Hongjoong."

"What?"

"Do that again."

"Do what?"

"That. The thing you just did."

"What? I didn't do anything."

"Yes you did, you made a sound."

"What sound? Ah?"

"Yes! That! I think I know what it is." Seonghwa snapped his finger.

"Huh?"

"Silence. That's the answer! Silence. Because if we say or talk, the silence will break."

Hongjoong gasped excitedly, "Oh my God! You're right!"

Seonghwa wrote the answer on the paper with his fan, and after a moment of stillness where they both held their breaths, the wall slowly opened, leading more ways for them to come.

Seonghwa looked at the opened wall, shockingly, "It's correct! It works."

"It should be, or I would be disappointed." Hongjoong teasingly peered at him.

The blue-haired man happily beamed while holding on the latter's hand again, hand in hand as they were running toward a different path that could potentially guide the young couple out of the maze.

"Let's fucking go!" Hongjoong cheered excitedly.

* * *

They managed to solve the tenth riddle before another path opened up in front of them. 

This time, it was much different than the other. At the end of the path, Seonghwa could see a long hallway that reached a bright white light from the other side of the arena.

They were almost there.

He realized that the more they were inside the maze, the more the migraine was eating inside his head. Seonghwa suspected that it was the effect of the little spider ruling the place that everyone had mentioned. And he could feel his heart throbbed along with it. He figured they were able to solve it quickly that he didn't get any effect caused by the creature. Still, the foggy setting and humidity inside the maze constantly crawled on his skin, making the young wizard feel uncomfortable.

Seonghwa held on the shorter's hand as they both walked toward the exit, and when he was almost glad that they were only roughly twenty feet away from the path, he felt a tug from his busy hand one that was holding on Hongjoong's. Seonghwa questioningly turned around.

Hongjoong was standing there, looking so confused and scared. 

And the blonde hair wizard's stomach churned.

Oh, no.

Oh, no no no.

This couldn't be.

Seonghwa reached his other hand toward the shorter man. But Hongjoong looked as if he had another plan on his mind. Not like he still had a stable mind to think of whatever was scheming on the top of his head.

The blue-haired man retracted his hands as if afraid, frightenedly stepped back as his voice wavered, almost sounded broken like a wounded animal. "W-who are you?" 

Seonghwa reached out his hands again, "Hong-"

"Don't touch me!"

The blonde wizard drew his hands back, looking hurt. Even if he knew Hongjoong wasn't in his right mind.

"Hongjoong. It's me, Seonghwa." he tried again. But apparently, Hongjoong couldn't recall a Seonghwa in his memory at all. The shorter wizard furrowed his brows, steps back even dangerously closer to the twist. And Seonghwa finally figured out why would those wizards would be staying so long inside the maze and having all of their memories being consumed away like that.

Because people would likely make the dumbest decision when they were panicked, especially when they have no recollection of who and where they were, and Hongjoong, as painfully as described, did exactly _that_.

He hesitantly turned around and ran back toward the maze, and Seonghwa's brain was hurting like the fucking hell that he could feel it almost going to split into halves, and he held on it, breathing heavily.

_Fuck, think Seonghwa, think._

He chased the frightened shorter man before the latter was even able to reach close to the door that they managed to get away from, Seonghwa's mouth whispered in a panic: _please don't go back, please, come back to me, please, don't-_

And damn it, Seonghwa's brain just didn't want to _think_ of how to make Hongjoong snap back into his mind, because it seemed like this creature knew how to manipulate people's brains for them to volunteer themselves inside this cursed maze—becoming victims of this monstrosity of a memory eater. 

_Just think of something, Seonghwa._

So, he did exactly just that.

 _Right_ , Hongjoong was being controlled, he hadn't got his memories stolen away yet, but he was being controlled. They were so close to getting out of here. A few steps away from the maze's curvy setting, the creature shouldn't have any ability to approach both of them in such a blunt and slandered way unless they were back inside of it. So the only thing was to snap him out of the spider's influence, and Seonghwa had to do something that would be impactful enough for the latter to awaken his sense.

_Something impactful._

Seonghwa wrecked his brain to think, ignoring the screeching of headache pouncing on him every two seconds as he ran towards the scared smaller frame, strongly pulled him from the arm toward his own chest before he leaned in.

_Something impactful enough._

Their lips touch in an instant, and Seonghwa smoothly covered the latter's ears, pressed his lips as deep as he could in the sixty-degree angle, and hoped with all his mind that this was impactful enough for the shorter man to snap his sense back. He kissed the latter like his life depended on it, tenderly but deeply. Hands were shaking as he closed the latter's ears, hoping that the spider wouldn't be able to control his husband any longer.

_This should be impactful enough._

Hongjoong stood still, perhaps was lost and confused, but his pupils weren't as clouded as earlier, and his surroundings were as muffled as before. The hissing in his brain stopped for a moment before he blinked, feeling numb on the lips as a strange but embraced and comfortable warmth engulfing his presence. It was the same feeling as when he was endured through the painful burnt of the black flame, and for some reason, Hongjoong felt protected.

Like he was in good hands no matter what blackhole that he would, miserably, fall into.

So he closed his eyes to block away from the disturbing hissing sound commanded screaming at him to walk back into the foggy mildewed maze, Hongjoong clasped back from his thought and opened his eyes, gasped, only to catch himself mouth-to-mouth with the blonde man. Literally.

_Wait, what the fuck?_

He pushed the latter away weakly.

"W-what are you doing?"

Seonghwa opened his eyes from the kiss, looking at him worryingly. Hands still on his ears, Hongjoong noticed.

"Hong...Joong?"

"Yes? Park Seonghwa. And remind me why we are kissing again?" he returned puzzlingly.

"You're back." Seonghwa held out a relieved breath, eyes still blown as he looked at the shorter man, before he leaned in again for another kiss, arms held tightly on Hongjoong's small frame desperately. Thanked every higher superior individual that ever existed on that blue sky before smilingly held on Hongjoong's hand, even steadier this time, leading both of them out of the maze, running toward the bright, welcoming exit. In the process, confusing the heck out of Hongjoong,

Because what in the living world was that?

 _What the hell did he miss? Why couldn't he seem to remember?_ Hongjoong's brain was screaming at him.

Not like he could answer those questions himself.

The moment they both got out of the gate toward the arena, many were shouted for them. Some were yelling through the glass protection. Some even whistled from the audience seats as they clapped their hands excitedly. And Hongjoong realized that, _oh crap_ , whatever business they did inside that maze must have been captured by the big screen. And this meant he would get teased by literally all of his friends and family the moment he got back to Korea.

He wanted to hide so badly. But not like he could.

Not when Seonghwa was still holding on his smaller hand as if the blonde man's whole entire existence was here because of Hongjoong.

And he felt shy all of a sudden.

Seonghwa didn't release his grip until they were both returned to their room.

Nine couples were able to escape the Maze of Forgetfulness.

* * *

Seonghwa sat silently on the sofa after his shower, waiting for the blue-haired wizard to finish his routine in the bathroom while thinking about what happened that day.

His stomach stirred painfully with all the 'what-if's running in his head.

What if he couldn't reach Hongjoong in time?

What if he couldn't protect Hongjoong?

What if Hongjoong was able to walk back inside, and had his memories being taken away unwillingly?

Will he be able to handle it?

Will he be able to accept that it was his fault?

Will he be able to acknowledge that he wasn't powerful and reliable enough to protect his partner?

Will he-

"Seonghwa, stop thinking, I'm fine." Seonghwa looked up from his thought, seeing Hongjoong had already stood next to him with his still wet hair, a simple white tee and shorts on, carefully dodged the coffee table before settling down next to the blonde-haired man.

"How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to see that your thoughts are literally eating you up alive."

"S-sorry." Seonghwa drew back into the sofa, "I just feel responsible for it. I can't help but rewind about what happened today," Hongjoong gave out a light chortle, jokingly flicking on the latter's head. "Silly, I'm still here, right? That's all it matters. It only comes to your concern when you failed to drag my dumbass out from that big nasty maze, you hazelnut. Thank you."

Seonghwa funnily looked up at the man, "Hazelnut?"

"What? Do you want me to call you an asshole then?" Hongjoong joked, earning a smile from the taller man.

Seonghwa chucklingly shook his head, heaving out a sigh as Hongjoong comfortably settled himself into the soft cushion of the sofa, lightly humming to a tone that randomly popped up on his head, staring emptily at the ceiling. Seonghwa studied his figure for a moment, feeling intense for the instant, scooched in close distractingly. He licked his lips.

"Can I..."

Hongjoong looked at him from where his head rested on the sofa, looking waveringly at the latter, giving out a soft hum in question.

"Can I kiss you?" Seonghwa asked again, more profound this time, making Hongjoong's went rigid.

It was sure that the tension had been vivid for them these past few months, but neither had dared to even approach it, and in the end, no words have been uttered. But Seonghwa felt bold suddenly, after today's incident, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Despite the fact, guilts have been chewing on him over and over. Seonghwa was also thinking of something else.

And for once, he felt selfish for it, but Hongjoong was right there, eyes widened by his words in surprise, mouth agape for a moment before he exhaled, breathly responded back, and did not pay attention if the word went unheard afterward.

"Sure," he whispered, and Seonghwa leaned in.

It wasn't rush or pushy, but more of soft, tender lips pressing. Like Seonghwa was still testing the water, checking to see if it was fine of not from the other's consent. Hongjoong seemed to be content with what he had as he closed it eyes, sweetly responded to the kiss. Not even a moment later that he didn't realize that he had settled on top of Seonghwa's laps, both bodies softly pressed onto the smooth cushions of the couch, lazily making out.

It was pleasant if Hongjoong being absolutely honest, which he was, he took whatever Seonghwa gave him. He returned just that, letting the other man wandered his tongue around, gently bit on the blue-haired man's lips as his hands dedicatedly hugging over Hongjoong's waist, kissing him without stopping. Even a long distilled moment after Seonghwa pushed them up, and toward the bed, their lips were still sealed together, inseparable.

Hongjoong pushed Seonghwa away lightly, gaining back the lack of breath as he was lying on his back, eyes blurry as the man on top of him peaked his lips softly a few times, making Hongjoong giggled. He trailed his nose down to the man's collarbone, nibbled around the smooth skin of his shoulder, kissing and sucking marks all around it. The soft blonde hair strain caressing Hongjoong's cheeks, making the man closed his eyes again, softly breathed as the latter licked toward his Adam's apple, Hongjoong hands shyly gripped on Seonghwa's shirt, letting the man returned to his lips once again, kissing on them dearly.

"Do you even know how intoxicating you are?" Seonghwa murmured through his lips, leaning in to kiss on Hongjoong's eyes, making the blue-haired wizard breathlessly laughed.

"You could say that to yourself, Park."

Seonghwa chuckled, then kissed him again.

Kissing Hongjoong was, Seonghwa would say, enjoyable. And he didn't really know when he ever had the desire to give him such intimate expression before, Seonghwa had never regretted his decision.

So they continued on, caressing in the white bed that they shared as Seonghwa pressed on with their fair doses of intimacy, lost counts of the little whimpers and mewls that Hongjoong made that night.

* * *

Round 5: 

This round, it was more of a chasing game, it would be another hide-and-seek in a sense, except there would be no defenders and offenders this time, but everyone would be the prays and predators accordingly. As long as they could determine that themselves.

Each teammate would receive a wristband with a color respectively to their teams, as long as they can rip off any contestant that was currently onstage, the whole team would be eliminated.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong were given two purple wristbands.

The rule to this round was easy to comply with, but it was a hard game to deal with, considering it was the absolute survival zone. 

At first, they stuck together, holding hands that have the wristbands together, so if they ever got encountered, the couple could put those hands behind the back, back-to-back with each other as they fought. It was a good plan. But it gave Seonghwa some disadvantage since he needed both of his hands to perform some of his attack spells. So Hongjoong nudged at him that he would cover the both of them, Seonghwa furrowed his brows at the suggestion.

It was a little risky.

Two hours later, when they had not yet encountered no one, but one team had announced their own elimination, Hongjoong pouted from the boredom of waiting for new competitors. 

The blue-haired man turned to his husband and suggested that he check around, and Seonghwa disagreed.

"It's been hours, Hwa, just two minutes, I can't stand this anymore," he whines, tapping the staff slightly into the ground. "I'm just looking around real quick, please. I will be right back. Don't you trust me?"

It was not that Seonghwa did not trust the man, but the unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach made him uneasy about letting the blue-haired man away. But Hongjoong started whining like a kid and dragged his arms around, and as much as Seonghwa cared about the man, he couldn't resist the puppy eyes that the latter pulled off, so he groaned, letting his palm out, shaking his head defeatedly.

Hongjoong beamed, pushed himself away from his partner with a cheerful smile, and said, "I will be right back" before he ran off the East side of the arena.

The setting of this round was on top of the mountains.

Hongjoong couldn't reach far from where they originally stood, but far enough to look around for any new footsteps from another source of human beings, checking around for ten minutes, Hongjoong sighs before he walked back. Before he could regain what happened, though, Hongjoong caught the sight of Seonghwa stood by a big tree, holding on his fan as a shield of protection. 

The man silently hoped that Hongjoong would return a little later, so he didn't have to engage and damage himself, Seonghwa didn't want to trouble him.

But his institution was correct, because roughly two minutes after Hongjoong's departure, this couple had been approaching Seonghwa from behind, giving him constant attacks. 

They must have been waiting for either of them to depart from one another.

Seonghwa could do so much at a time, but there were times when his power had to reach a limitation.

The couple clearly had as much power as he had, and it took him at a disadvantage since Seonghwa was clearly fighting against two people right at this moment. So he begged for Hongjoong to just stay away from the sight and keep his wristband safe. 

Seonghwa would have to stop these two from taking his wristband, anyhow.

Tiring sagged by the tree, Seonghwa held tightly on his fan, blocking the constant attacks from the other young couple, feeling absolutely hopeless. 

Before he got to regain what more was given to him, Seonghwa dodged a whip of air slapped onto the poor body of the tree, lost his own balance as he fell down on the ground, panicking the moment the two men walked toward where his wrist was, wickedly bent down to reach for the purple wristband. Seonghwa wanted to whisper a sorry, to apologize to Hongjoong for not being able to protect it. Not being able to defend himself, to be useless, a true disappointment. He closed his eyes in defeat before two heavy thuds could be heard on top of his fallen body.

His wristband wasn't even being touched. But the two men before him have limblessly laid around like melted mannequins. Seonghwa could hear the footsteps harshly ran toward where he stood as a blue head approach the bodies, ripped off the orange wristbands that both of them have, and shoved them into his pocket, bending down where his husband laid.

Seonghwa pushed himself up, feeling shameful seeing his husband returned.

"I'm sorry. I could have done better. I almost let us lose if you weren't back in time. I'm sorry for disappointing you, I'm not even asking for forgiveness. But I don't know what else to say. I'm so-"

"Shut up."

Seonghwa stopped his utterance instantly.

Hongjoong hugged him, head burrowed into his chest as he embraced the taller man tightly. 

"I'm sorry for leaving you even if you've warned me. I'm sorry for letting you fighting them off alone, for being so careless about everything." He mumbled. The raspy voice got swallowed beneath Seonghwa's hanbok, and Seonghwa didn't know what to do at first but to stood there, dumbfoundedly like a fish amidst the water surface.

But he regained his usual composure soon enough, and gently hugged Hongjoong back, both of them were standing there, gripping one another until the bell rang, finished off their match.

Seven couples managed to stay in the fifth round.

* * *

The competition went by safely before Hongjoong got a glimpse of timing, and December had followed to their door.

Hongjoong looked back and felt amazed by the constant push of events that he had been through since the beginning of his journey and flashed-back so many times of the moment he and Seonghwa barely knew each other. Chuckling at the foreign thought that they could actually be together. It was the day before their final match, which Hongjoong and Seonghwa, not just potentially, but fortunately able to pass through until this last moment without a scratch. It was an absolute fortune. And Hongjoong thanked every Buddha and God for this blessing, glad to be completely uninjured until the last moment.

And he wished that nothing would happen at their last match, nevertheless.

It wasn't sure if the first place had finally belonged to them yet. Still, the undeniable knowledge that they surpassed the third place had brought up tears and cheers from their families and friends. Hongjoong laughed at his mom's ranting with Seonghwa hugging him from behind, calmly nodding at the cheerful mother's talks through their video call. His mother looked at the both of them with an "ooh," making her son embarrassingly waved his hand in dismiss, and she laughed, cooing them right at sight.

It was intensively nerve-wracking for so many reasons.

One of them was the initial thought of 'if the opponents have also reached this far, they must be as powerful as them, maybe even more.'

And damn right, Hongjoong knew this was an unhealthy mindset to have, it was still hard to believe for him if they could have all the possibilities to win this fight. One and for all.

So he took it the hardest in November, ignoring his own birthday just to train and got himself better, more focused, more precise. 

It was a day before their last battle.

Seonghwa decided to make them dinner.

To be precise, a very fancy dinner.

Confused by the sudden outburst of the man, Hongjoong still ate the food contently, but his eye-gazing was apparent as he chewed on the steak.

The latter man had behaved much uneasy than he would collect. Hongjoong wondered what was on his mind.

Seonghwa didn't have much to say, but in the end, before he picked up the dishes, Seonghwa set the fork down, looking at Hongjoong as if he had something to confess, but decided to go against it. He bit his lips, emptily looking at his plate before he glanced up.

"Hongjoong-ah."

"Hmm?" The blue-haired worriedly looked at him.

"No matter what happens tomorrow. Don't take it to heart. Just do your best, and stay safe...And don't worry about me."

_Don't...take it to heart?_

Hongjoong stared at the man weirdly, because Seonghwa was thoughtful and gentle, was secreted and careful. Still, he had not said anything as concerning at this, and something nervously ugly started crawling up onto Hongjoong's skin as if a reminder of its attack to swallow him up alive. Though, Hongjoong decided to wave it off since he assumed his husband was just worried about their terminal competition. 

So he shrugged the discomfort off his shoulders.

Plus, it wouldn't be ideal for worrying about something the day before their competition.

Even worse, their final match of this tournament.

And Hongjoong had to try his best.

He must.

* * *

Round 12: 

The last match was set back to the very first setting. Each individual would be placed into a different room, then once the bell rang, they would be released to enter the stage, either looking for their own partner or face the enemy team and have a duet with them.

The last member remaining onstage would be the winner of the competition and would be able to carry the price back to their nation.

Hongjoong was ready.

But not so much when the battle had begun, though.

Thirty minutes in, as the blue-haired man wandered through the dungeon (their final-match setting), he nervously held on his staff to see his surroundings, stepping clueless down the stairs without trying to make a sound, Hongjoong halved his steps to see one person from the opponent team.

The man also stopped his track, hand hid behind his back to signal something before he dodged behind the dark, cold wall, covered himself from the blue-haired wizard's sight.

Signal. This shouldn't be safe.

Hongjoong walked backward upstairs, where he initially was until he reached the higher floor, darting around for a place to hide.

Signal.

That meant their enemies have grouped up much sooner than Hongjoong expected. And he still couldn't dot Seonghwa anywhere. If Hongjoong failed to protect himself, Seonghwa would stand no chance to defeat both of them without having some sort of damage on his kin. Hongjoong must have thought of something to reduce the waste that would likely happen if he made the wrong steps.

So he ran as quickly as he could, trying his best to make as minimum sound as possible, searching for a small pathway that could hide from being spotted. Hongjoong found a small creak that big enough to crawl in but small enough to shield his body away at first check.

If he was lucky enough, the rival couple shouldn't notice his presence for some time. Hongjoong put his palm over his mouth, holding back the rapid exhales of his throbbing heart and peeking through the creak to check where the opponents were located. At the same time, looking around the rock-covered walls to see if there was any escape for him to make. He hoped Seonghwa wouldn't be able to encounter them until Hongjoong could get himself out of here first.

Best if they managed to meet somewhere else.

Anywhere but here.

One of the guys from the remained team stepped closer to where Hongjoong hid. The shorter man almost gave out a hic if it wasn't for his palm covered through the squeak of his trembled mouth, Hongjoong held tight on his staff on the other hand that barely snugged inside the creek enough, afraid to cause any whimper to alert the other couple.

The man came close, too close, but left the spot soon after. It seemed that he didn't see Hongjoong through the creek behind the rocked wall. And the blue-haired finally heaved a sigh as they walked to the higher floor, carefully stepping on the gray, hardened stairs. Backs showed dangerous toward him. As the two marched up the steps silently, Hongjoong pushed himself out of the creek, eyes staring intensely by their shoulders while dragging out his staff. But the golden staff hit by the rock wall, making a little rumbling sound on the surface.

And that was enough to snap the couple's attention back to the down floor.

_Fuck._

Hongjoong stared back at them in shock, held on his staff as tight as he could as he darted through the floor, heading toward the downstairs that the other two just got up from. The man that walked behind the two chased up with him, running at the small figure in full speed, Hongjoong ran down from the stairs in a panic, when the rival team reached toward the beginning of the stairs, Hongjoong turned around, swung his staff as strong as he could, frighteningly cried, "FUMENAS!" The whip of thunderbolt precariously stabbed through the man's chest, making him screamed as his body shot out of the stairs, painfully cracked through the wall with a big hole. Then he dropped down limply, unconscious.

The man was too close to Hongjoong. Too damn close. Because Hongjoong stunned for a quick second to regain what he did. For once in his life, he was scared of his own power. Hongjoong clearly just hit the man with too much tension on his hands. Too harmful for the latter's life. 

From deep inside, he knew it was wholly the stranger’s fault for getting too close considering the fact that Hongjoong’s power was in its most powerful stage in close-distances. But it wasn’t the time for finger-pointing, it was _still_ Hongjoong who had hurt him, nobody else.

When he fought against the young couple in their first few rounds, Hongjoong held his own limitation, knowing that he intended to kill nobody, so the damage had been made, but nobody died. Hongjoong knew how much pressure he applied to his spells before he blasted them.

But this time, he wasn't so sure anymore. He still turned around to run, hearing the blatant angry screaming of the other man, who rushed down to the stairs, cursing him behind his back. Hongjoong cried, sniffled constant apologies as he ran for his life, passing through the rough, freezing dungeon. 

_Please, I am so sorry. Please stay alive. I didn't mean to do so much harm. Please forgive me, I didn't mean it. Please stay safe. Please-_

He cried as he ran blindly for no destination at sight, praying with every single brain-cell that he had for the fragile hope of the poor man to be treated safely. To be recovered safely. He didn't mean it. He really didn't mean it. Hongjoong was sorry for it. He was so _so_ sorry about it. Please.

_Just, please._

_Please stay alive._

And so he ran.

Because as much as brutal this competition was, Hongjoong didn't want anyone to be harmed. Especially _not_ under his hands. 

The angry man was almost caught up to him, growling frustratedly for Hongjoong to be stopped by the dead-end of the pitch dark dungeon.

Hongjoong gasped for breath, eyes blurry with the tears strained on his face. He looked around terrifyingly, hoping to see for an escape, hands trembled from the shock of electricity that he extended a few minutes earlier. Maybe the shock also ate up to his brain because Hongjoong teared up and couldn't hold up his staff after the guilt that was chewing on his skin like a decomposed body. Rugged and devastated.

"You fucking bitch!" The man snarled, raising his wand mid-air, pointed straight through at Hongjoong's troubled face, and for the moment, Hongjoong thought he deserved it.

"Medeis Comedomus!"

So he willingly closed his eyes, holding on the staff with his broken soul, and waited for the damage to come in the speed of light. He deserved this.

Hongjoong deserved this.

But nothing punished him. Instead, a swift movement coming from the embrace that he didn't expect to come. And that was when Hongjoong internally sobbed for the punishment that the higher individuals have chosen to execute him instead. To punish the man who always stood beside him.

The man that desperately pushed his partner trembling frame into the warm, faithful body. His own faithful body.

Seonghwa.

The taller man was there, desperately splinted through the dark dungeon hallway, reaching for the small shaking body into his chest with a firm, but absolutely supple embrace. He seized the man into a tight hug, hiding his gaze away from what was heading toward them.

"CIRCUMFUSUS PRAESIDIUM!"

Seonghwa screamed, chin dug into the shorter man's soft blue hair as he gave out a weak groan, holding his partner as if they were bound. Like he was truly depended on it, for a fact, his whole body weight was fully depended on Hongjoong as he grunted, hugging the smaller body protectively as the shield behind them blazing a clear green light, covered their figures behind it in an all-embracing shelter with Hongjoong stared at the man, tears still tainted on his red cheeks.

Hongjoong knew this spell, the spell that man behind the both of them used. He had heard it. Not from the textbooks. Not from his friends. Not even from his father.

It was from the bathroom. It was that spell. The one that had marked on Hongjoong's arm burningly as he helplessly dropped to the ground.

It was that dark magic spell.

And while Hongjoong had finally realized the poisonous hex's origin, it was too late for him to react. Because the moment Seonghwa covered him up from the spell, Seonghwa was roaring, hands painfully gripped on his partner's waist as he clenched his teeth, eyes closed tight, leaving no space for Hongjoong to retract himself.

Hongjoong noticed the shield, the brilliant green color, and the towering body before him were all whimpered under the black fire that currently burnt through all-over Seonghwa's spine. Like it was swallowing everything that remained on the blonde wizard's body.

It was ten seconds, but Hongjoong felt as if ten years have run through his dysfunctional brain the moment Seonghwa went rugged on top of Hongjoong. The blue-haired man was despairing of carrying on Seonghwa's body as they both dropped to the round the moment the dark spell stopped sucking inside Seonghwa's back. And Hongjoong's staff slipped out of his hand, falling down uselessly by the side with Seonghwa's head on Hongjoong's laps.

"-Hwa, Seonghwa." Hongjoong cried, shook the man's body in desperation. "G-get up. Hwa. Don't do this to me. Get up. Park Seonghwa!"

The man from the rival team smirked at the scenario folded in front of him, wickedly walking closer.

"Ah, so the sheep have volunteered himself into his cage." Raising up his wand again. "And here I was worrying that I would have to get rid of this motherfucker later. If this is what God has convincing me to receive, I shall send both of you down by his request." The man's eyes were tactic, as he swung the spell through the air, "I've been trying so hard to get rid the both of you. To curse your cocky brats. To send the damn spider up your bastard's mind, and blame the curse on your entitled little title, but this son of a bitch has been stepping on my plans over and over again. I had _enough!"_ he growled, only a few steps away from Hongjoong and Seonghwa's lifeless body. Then, he snickered as if he had lost his mind, eyes hysterically closed as he stared upon the ceiling, "Sleep tight." mouth whispered, "mimir-"

"Fulminate maxium!" 

The loud rumble echoed through the arena as every particle flew up, harshly pounced around another like air molecules inside a gas tank. The little rocks from the walls growlingly bonded into a giant ball before the settled on Hongjoong's red ruby, nicely arranged into a nice circle as they shot up soon after, breaking the magical layer of setting surrounded them. 

The arena returned to its usual white walls, revealing around the entire sections of the audiences gasping and whispering. The blue-haired wizard's staff fiddled in his hands, now regained back its composure as the intensive of ignition screeched through the opponent's body as he screamed. The ruined body blasted through the protection glass, forming a large crack on the top of the ceiling before it dropped, cracked on the ground painstakingly with distorted posture. Sadly.

And Hongjoong felt all of the emotions collapsing against his swollen heart.

He felt hopeless.

The bell rang loudly, startling the audiences away from the little silence that they have before. Then people were cheering, applauding in waves of congratulations as the administration announced the final round's ultimate winners.

Blurry, it was all blurry after, and Hongjoong did not know where he got led away after, but he couldn't be taken his eyes off the limped body rolling on the stretcher as the nurses pushed it away from the arena.

* * *

Hongjoong didn't utter a word ever since he was in the arena, looking around the infirmary like a lost child. The moment the healers looked at him with apologies, mouths sealed to confess their uncurable curse that crawling all over Seonghwa's back.

There were cries, his own cries, and he mechanically leaned his head on Seonghwa's bedridden palm, holding it desperately as he whispered for the man's return. As if it would do him anything good.

It had been five hours since Seonghwa's injured now. And Hongjoong didn't know what to do but sitting there, feeling useless as ever. He knew the spell. It was the whispering that hissing through his brain when he was cursed the previous year. It was the same damn spell!

And if he got decursed, how came neither of the healers knew of the cure?

Until he remembered.

An eye for an eye.

Dark magic...

Dark magic users.

He needed to take Seonghwa to a dark magic-user. 

Hongjoong abruptly got up from his seat, pushing out of the ward in a hurry, calling for one of the Kims' assistants to book him a flight back to Korea for the instant, another ticket for Seonghwa, and warned the man from the other side to keep everything a secret. Before walking back to Seonghwa's bed, requesting for his husband's departure from the hospital.

A dark magic-user.

Hongjoong was supposed to stay for a few more hours for the winners' announcement and ceremony, but he got no time for that.

Besides, their fathers could do such honors themselves.

* * *

"You know how funny it is seeing both of you again, but it's Mr. Park who got hurt instead of you?" Changkyun stared at Hongjoong as if he witnessed the actual laugh of the town as he pushed the door, leading Hongjoong carried the lifeless body beside him strugglingly.

"Please," Hongjoong had never felt so desperate, pushing the body toward the sofa, and he turned around. Changkyun noticed the tears were almost gained upon the tip of his eyes now. Interesting.

"You saved me before, right? Please save him this time, I will do anything, please just save him." Hongjoong begged.

"You seem to be in much more desperation than him, I wonder what happened between you two." Changkyun queried out loud, making the blue-haired questioned at his remark. "The question is, are you willing to do the same as he did? Because it doesn't matter what I do, but how much are you going to sacrifice."

"What happened? Do what? What do you mean?"

Changkyun furrowed his brows at that, "What do I mean? I mean, the kid literally carried you on his back, asked for me to save you, and even allowed me to transfer his own energy into your body. This was a strong curse. He used over half of his own magic to heal you back, he stayed up all night to watch you, didn't he tell you anything?"

Hongjoong felt like an asshole.

"N-no?" he shockingly whispered, earning a sigh from the other man. "Oh God, this is why I hate it when idiots fall in love." Changkyun bemoaned.

"The thing is, to get rid of this curse, you need to push the dark spell out from the body, and it was a magic consuming spell, so it's going to eat your magic until you die, yada yada, you know, the boring stuff." He scrolled through the bookshelf, looking for the cure like he did months before. "So the one way to decurse it is to transfer a new energy source into the injured body, like an immune, vaccine kind of sort. As long as the giver's energy is in the same range as the receiver, they can push the dark magic out of their bodies." He hummed, cradling the small pointed knife with his palm. "Get it? Also, the stronger the energy source is, the faster the victim would recover."

Hongjoong nodded, slowly absorbing all this information into his brain.

"Last time, it took around two hours for you to recover, let see how big is this bad boy going to be," Changkyun walked toward Seonghwa, flipped his body back, so he lied on his stomach this time, firmly ripped the shirt with the knife, then fully exposed the marks that lying all over the skin surface. Hongjoong almost puked at sight. "Tsk, tsk. This would have to take more energy than expected." Changkyun looked at the black marks hesitantly, like he convinced enough that nobody would be willing to pull out this vast of their energy to heal such a large-scale injury. The dark wizard shook his head in defeat, clocking his tongue in thought.

"I-I will do it," Hongjoong observed the man's behavior sometimes, able to predict part of the man's thought. Carefully muttered, he raised from his seat. "I will do it." His voice was stabler this time. "Let me do it."

"A-are you sure? This would take almost all of your health for it, I don't condemn you to do this, it would be dangerou-"

"Just let me do it. I'm volunteering." Hongjoong pressed on this time. 

Changkyun stopped himself so he could clearly look at the man in front of him. Then to Seonghwa, and then back at Hongjoong. Then he exhaled tiringly, seemed to form a deal with his decision. Moreover, Hongjoong's decision.

"Alright," he breathed, "I would need your blood for this" He walked toward the dark cauldron and stood by the bookshelf, pouring a few potions inside with his own blood. 

Hongjoong followed, letting the man to touch his wrist, slid down a clean cut on his palm as he watched the red liquid gushing out in lines, dripping down inside the pot.

* * *

Seonghwa woke up feeling like shit.

Groaning as he pushed himself up, the blonde man didn't realize the body lying beside him and burrowed its head even more into his chest.

Hongjoong.

"Uhm," Hongjoong whimpered, cracked his eyes from the stiffness of the body that he was hugging at, "You're awake." He spoke raspily, voice still dried from the sudden awakeness. Then he giggled amidst the blurriness of his sight, "You look like shit."

Seonghwa chuckled, eyes blinking at the face in front of him, still lost to the influence of sleep and dark setting inside the bedroom that they were both in, being the beauty that he was that Seonghwa's heart almost skipped a beat. "Look at yourself first," he laughed, then nuzzled his nose onto Hongjoong's forehead. Returning the hug. "How long have I been out?"

Hongjoong whined, not wanting to respond, but still shuffled his arm randomly at the surface beneath the pillow that he was lying on, pulling out his phone. He winced at the brightness of it. "Uhm, twenty hours, around that."

It was currently one in the afternoon.

"Twenty hours?! That long?" Seonghwa widened his eyes, now had fully aroused by the surprise element of his awakening. 

Hongjoong whined at the loss of warmth from his husband. He grabbed the latter's arm, dragging him back down, "Get back here, I'm tired." Then proceeded to mumble as he snuck back inside the blonde wizard chest again, "It should be _that_ long since your dumbass _loves_ to be a protagonist so much. I had to drag your sorry ass all the way from Norway to Seoul. And then spent almost all of my power to bring you back because of your stupid heroic act of a kink and too damn generous facade. Imagine how tired I was." 

"I'm sorry." Seonghwa stared at him, feeling every single guilt was peeling his skin out in layers. 

"And I can't fucking believe it, you didn't even tell me that you use your energy to decurse me when I got hexed last year."

"I'm sorry-"

"And then use your own damn body to shield me from that curse again, nearly scared the shit out of me."

"Hongjoong, I'm sorry-"

"Shut the fuck up." Hongjoong grabbed the collar of the taller man's shirt, settled on his laps before he leaned in for a kiss. Seonghwa's body went tense before he sighed in, shut his eyes, and softly pressed along. 

They stayed like that, missing each other scent as tongues traveled from one mouth to another, contently caressing each other. Until Hongjoong parted them, bending in for a few pecks before he rested his head on Seonghwa's shoulder, whispered.

"Thank you."

Seonghwa smiled at his confession, pushed the latter's head up with his palms, leaning in again.

Hongjoong exhaled, returning the smile through their kiss as he mumbled.

"Gosh, I miss you so much."

"Me too."

* * *

"So," Mingi peered up from his seat, "you guys are a thing now right. Like official and all?"

Wooyoung sorted from across his seat.

"I'm sure we all agree with that even if they don't," San piped in, "Not when Seonghwa-hyung literally sucked the hell out of Hongjoong-hyung's mouth back in round four of the tournament."

"Hey, I did not-"

"Right? Oh my God, if I didn't know I would mistake that I must have been watching porn or something." 

"For fuck's sake Yunho what are you-"

"And then when Hongjoong-hyung back-hugging Seonghwa-hyung after round seven, too! Please, I swear I thought I must have stumbled across We Got Married."

"Jongho-"

"And when they kept holding hands throughout the eleventh round. You don't even know how much my mom was gushing over it. Right? San's mom was also there."

If eye-gazes can kill, Hongjoong surely would go on a rampage with all of his friends. And the fact that Seonghwa was as embarrassing as him comforted no further to his public humiliation from the crowd that he claimed as his friends right now.

If only he could hide inside a hole.

It was three days after the tournament ended, and the couple decided to hold a hang-out with their friends once again.

And even though it was embarrassing, noisy, and loud-mouthed, Hongjoong missed this feeling.

To be united.

He was sure Seonghwa did, too.

* * *

Yeosang explained a week after about the story of the freshman kid who went to the dean and confessed his wrongdoing to the staffs and principle, expressing his deep apologies for the incident of Hongjoong's past injury.

And the young couple thought it was amusing to hear.

Apparently, the couple that used dark magics have been illegally performed such banned power behind the public, and to fathom their plan of gaining the first place in the tournament, they made a trip to every nation that had the chance of defeating them. Of course, Seonghwa and Hongjoong weren't exceptional.

Knowing that the young couple has married a few months prior, they have access inside the school student's profiles to look for right-men who could help them delay, or best, canceling the competitors' participation to attend the WIT.

And that was where the poor Freshman stepped in, bribed by them through his own hatred that Hongjoong had "betrayed" him for some way as he committed to taking away something the blue-haired wizard's owned. The simplest thing which he managed to grab, Hongjoong's hair. Wishing for the man's decease before, he stumbled across his own regrets now, biting for the guilt that he had done.

Hongjoong laughed at how ridiculous the story was, feeling bitter for himself that despite involved in nothing, shit would still hit his fan.

But he was glad the poor boy had confessed. If not? He wasn't sure of what he would do to him.

* * *

Pushing the large wooden door to Seonghwa's father's office, the young couple walked toward the man talking to Hongjoong's father.

"Here you are," Hongjoong's father smiled at them, putting down the folders' package on top of the coffee table. "It has been a month after the competition now, I'm sure you both acknowledging that." the young wizards nodded their heads.

"Well, we promised to leave you both choices after the tournament ended. Seonghwa's father continued, "here are the divorce documents, in case you still want to pursue the same idea." The man pushed the folders near them, making the wizards staring at them warily, "Do you guys still want to do it?"

Seonghwa stared at his partner knowingly, and Hongjoong shrugged, looking unbothered by the stack of paper in front of them. Then the blonde wizard smiled, holding on the shorter man's hand tightly, shaking his head. "No, actually. No, I don't think we do."

"We figured." Both of their fathers laughed, then Seonghwa's father coughed, regained himself. "Now, you own me those promised Apple shares, Kim."

"Fathers!" Hongjoong whined, "Did you guys really bet on our relationship with Apple stocks?!"

* * *

There were five sections of power in this nation. In other words, five ancestries were the most potent branches throughout Korea: Park, Kim, Lee, Choi, and Jung.

Especially Parks. Nobody, with heavy implication, that nobody should fuck with the Parks.

Not that anyone dared to.

And nobody supposed to. 

But apparently, one did.

Kim Hongjoong, as glory as his name was, had been messing up with the blonde wizard’s mind free rent ever since they crossed paths. And Seonghwa, as weak as he was, fully immersed himself beneath the latter’s tiny palms willingly, be it for the present or toward their continuous future.

And that was enough for him.

Surely, the past few months have been absolutely turbulent for the young couple. And sure, even if despite that Seonghwa desperately hated the tournament to the core of his hips bone, constantly asking until the last brain cell the reason why would the partner rule must be applied to the tournament. At least it wasn't that horrendous.

So maybe instead of, "who the _fuck_ made the rule?"

Seonghwa could change it into, "Who the _fuck_ made the rule? So at least Seonghwa could _thank_ them."

Because having Hongjoong beside him would be the biggest fucking gift in his entire life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU MADE IT!
> 
> thanxx u soooooo much for reading this ;-; ik it sucks but at least the deed has been done that i spent a month making a 40k monster....yikes, i think im good lol
> 
> also lmao i gave up at the slow burn tag 🤡 this was clearly NOT slow-burn
> 
> I don't know if anyone notices but if you play League of Legends, the chapters' titles are literally the runes names XD I'm bad with names so I just take them hahahaha.
> 
> _(edit: i deleted the note bc it was kinda in the way :' < but rmb that i am forever thankful for all the wishes you guys gave me. tysm :')) ___


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